Firebug
by MoxiesdenLovesShandy
Summary: Sharon and the team investigate a case involving arson and murder. Will someone from Andy's past be their number one suspect again? Meanwhile, Matthew starts to attend a new school. This story picks up where An Easy Day at the Office ended.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** Hello everyone! Here is the next story, continuing off from where An Easy Day at the Office left. I hope you all enjoy it!

Chapter 1

Gridlock was the recipe for this morning's commute in the city of Los Angeles. Cars were lined up everywhere as Andy made his way through the streets to the neighborhood of Crenshaw, southwest of Downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County Fire Department along with the Los Angeles Fire Department were on the scene of a recent house fire as Andy pulled his car up. As he got out of his car and made his way to the house, he flashed his badge to the officer at the crime tape and proceeded through. He saw Provenza and Amy standing at the front of the house that looked like it had heavy fire damage. "Glad you could join us this morning Flynn" Provenza said to him. Andy just gave him a look. "So what makes this fire a major crime?" Andy asked him as he looked around. "I mean if it's arson, shouldn't the investigators from the fire department be handling this?" Andy added as he turned to look back at Provenza.

"They did Flynn, but this is the fifth house in a two week period that's been lit up and there's a dead body inside of it" Provenza said to Andy as they walked into the crime scene, careful where they were stepping. They made their way to the body where Kendall and Mike were at. Buzz was filming the insides of the home and joined them at the body as well. "Kendall, tell me what we have here" Provenza stated to Kendall. "Well, you have a male, perhaps around 30-40 years old, that's all I can tell you right now, the body is badly burned" Kendall said as he examined the body. "Mike, anything?" Provenza asked. "Well, it looks like the fire may have started over here in the electrical box and then made its way through the walls, concentrating right where we are standing" Mike said as he pointed along the walls. "I'll need the reports from the fire investigators office on the rest of the fires and we will need to find out if our John Doe here was the one who owned this house" Provenza said to the team. "I'll get on that, sir" Julio said as he made his way outside of the house. Provenza looked around. Andy just shook his head. "So, if this fire was deliberately set" Andy started to say. "We have an arsonist and a murderer among us" Provenza added.

Sharon pulled up to the school with Matthew. She glanced in the rear-view mirror at Matthew before she got out of the car. He looked a little nervous as he watched the kids walk in to the school building. They talked on the way over to the school about the possibility of him staying after school here till Sharon or Andy came to pick him up. "Are you ready Matthew?" Sharon asked him. He looked back at her in the front seat and nodded. They both got out of the car. Sharon grabbed Matthew's hand and walked to where Cynthia was standing at the front steps of the building. "Hello Matthew" Cynthia said. "Hello" Matthew said back to her, still holding on the Sharon's hand. "Let's go inside, the Principal is waiting for us" Cynthia said as she led the way inside. Sharon started to follow her but noticed Matthew wasn't moving so she stopped. "Don't worry Matthew, everything is going to be fine, I promise" Sharon said to him so only he could hear her. "Okay" Matthew said and then proceeded with Sharon inside the building. They met with the Principal of the school and she welcomed Matthew. As Cynthia and Sharon spoke to the Principal in her office, Matthew sat in a chair in her office that was next to a wall that had pictures and plaques along it.

Sharon looked over at Matthew while Cynthia went through the DCFS list with the Principal. She waved for him to come over to where she was and he did. "Matthew, what is your favorite thing to learn about?" the Principal asked him. "I don't know" Matthew shrugged. Sharon looked at him and rubbed his back for reassurance. "That's okay Matthew if you don't know, that's why we are here to help you learn about all kinds of things!" The Principal informed him and smiled. Matthew smiled back but was a little unsure of things. "Everything is all set Captain" Cynthia said to Sharon as she started to make her way towards the main office of the school. Sharon nodded and she took Matthew through the office to the main hallway of the school. All three of them were going to walk Matthew down to his new classroom.

When they arrived at the classroom for Second Grade, the Principal knocked on the door and spoke to the teacher. She then introduced Matthew to all the kids in the grade and they welcomed him to their class. Sharon was glad with the ease of transition for Matthew and was hopeful that he would be okay there. Matthew waved to Sharon and Sharon waved back at him and smiled. "Don't worry Captain, we will take good care of him" the Principal assured Sharon as they walked back towards the office. "Oh, I understand that your school provides a day care option at the end of the school day till 6pm" Sharon stated to the Principal. "Yes, we do" the Principal said. "How much time in advance would you need in order for Matthew to attend that after school?" Sharon asked her. "Oh, well, normally we would need a school days' notice in advance but if something comes up in your day Captain, we can make arrangements for Matthew to attend the after school care" the Principal stated to her. "My division caught a case this morning, and I just want to make sure that if need be, Matthew could stay here till someone was able to pick him up" Sharon said to the Principal. "Of course" the Principal said to her. "Good luck Captain and let me know" the Principal said as she headed back to her office.

Sharon walked out with Cynthia back to the cars. Cynthia stopped Sharon before she got in to her car. "This school is very good, Captain, and they will take care of Matthew" Cynthia said. "Oh, I know. My step-grandchildren attend this school too and they just love it so I am hopeful that it will work out for Matthew here" Sharon said to her as her phone alerted to a text message. 'Body is heading to the morgue, meet you there? Hope everything good with Matthew at school' the message said from Andy. "I got to go, thank you so much Cynthia" Sharon said as she waved to her and got in her car. She took a deep breath and replied to the text message. 'Okay, Matthew is in his classroom, a little nervous. See you there' Sharon texted back to Andy and then headed over to the Los Angeles County Morgue.

Andy and Provenza were waiting outside Doctor Morales's examination room for Sharon when she arrived there. Andy saw her first as she walked in and met her halfway. She already looked worried. "Everything okay" Andy said to her in a low voice. "Everything is fine" she said back to him and smiled. Andy nodded and then followed her to where Provenza was waiting. She placed a gown over her clothes and by the time she was all set, Doctor Morales came out of the room. "The Doctor will see you now" he said as the three of them stepped in to the room. "I am soaking the hands in liquid in order to see if I can get you some fingerprints on your John Doe here" Doctor Morales said as he pointed to the two tubs of liquid on the bench. "Also I am checking dental records to see if we can identify him that way" he added. "Can you tell us how this person died, Doctor?" Sharon asked him. "Besides the obvious?" he snidely stated and looked at the Captain. "Well, it looks like your victim was attacked from behind, as there is a big indentation at the base of his skull" Doctor Morales showed them. "So he was hit with something" Provenza muttered. "Yes, more than likely that force is what killed your victim" the Doctor added. "So, whoever did this killed him and then set the fire?" Sharon questioned. "A little over kill if you ask me" Provenza stated. "Thank you Doctor" Sharon said as they all walked out of the exam room and back into the hallway.

"We need to know if our victim resided at that house" Sharon stated. "I already have Julio looking in to that Captain" Provenza stated to her. "Did any other homes have victims in them as well?" Sharon asked. "Well, this was the fifth house in two weeks according to the fire department, we will have to check their reports" Andy stated. "Alright, let's regroup in the Murder Room" Sharon said to both of them and then started to walk away. Andy looked at Provenza who just shrugged his shoulders and headed for the elevators to catch up to Sharon. Provenza shook his head at them. "Idiots" he muttered to himself.

"Uh, Captain!" Andy stated to her as Sharon was stepping on to the elevator. He then joined her in the empty elevator and as the doors closed, Sharon grabbed his hand and held it. "Did everything go okay at the school this morning?" Andy asked her as he looked back at her. "Yes" she said as she cleared her throat. "The Principal and his teacher seem to be wonderful and when he walked in to the classroom, all of the kids welcomed him, so I hope this will be a good place for him" Sharon said to Andy. "Oh, and I asked the Principal how much notice they would need to let Matthew attend after school care and she said they would need a school days' notice but she said Matthew could attend today after school" Sharon said to Andy as the doors opened to their floor. Andy followed Sharon to the Murder Room and as they walked inside, Amy and Julio were at their desks looking over the reports from the arson investigator.

Sharon went to her office to put her things away before joining them at the Murder Board. Andy placed his suit jacket on his chair and went over to the board to help put up pictures of the different crime scenes. Provenza walked in the room and sat down at his desk, while Buzz and Mike came out of electronics and set something up on Mike's desk. Sharon looked out of her office window and joined her team. "Okay, what do we have" Sharon stated to the team. "Five different houses, all within a 10 mile radius were burned down, in a two week period" Amy stated. "What did the fire investigators say in their reports?" Sharon asked. "The fires were all investigated as arson, ma'am" Julio said. Julio looked through the report on his desk again. "Were there any victims in the other fires?" Sharon asked. "No, this was the first victim ma'am" Julio said. "And all of these house fires were set the same way?" Sharon questioned. "Yes, according to the reports, the fires started at the electrical boxes in the homes and then traveled to the rest of the house, as it went up in flames" Mike stated to the Captain.

Sharon stared at the Murder Board and moved closer to it. "How can they be sure that all of these fires were started by the same person?" she asked. "Because, they were all started the same way, and all of them used the same incendiary device, a white phosphorous powder" Mike stated as he read the report. "Did the investigators have any one on their radar for these arsons?" Sharon asked her team. "Yes ma'am, they interviewed a Michael Henning, who was employed as a chemist for Bird Chemical Company located in Ladera Heights, but they released him as he had an alibi for when the fires were started" Julio stated as he looked over at the rest of the team. Sharon sighed. This case was going to be a long one. "Why did they interview him in the first place?" Sharon asked Julio. "According to the report, he lived in the area of the first two houses" Julio answered.

"Were there any fingerprints left anywhere in these houses that could lead us to somebody?" Sharon asked the team. Mike quickly looked through the report on his desk. "Ah, yes Captain, there was a partial of a fingerprint found at the house on Potomac Avenue" Mike said. "Do we have that fingerprint" Sharon asked Mike as she walked over to his desk. "It looks like it is down at the fire investigator's office. I will head down there and bring it back here Captain" Mike said as he got up. "Take Buzz with you Mike" Sharon said and nodded to Buzz. Buzz followed Mike out the door. Sharon turned around and looked at Andy.

"While they go pick up the partial fingerprint, do we have any arsonists in our databases that were released recently or under investigation still?" Sharon asked Andy, Provenza, Julio, and Amy. Andy looked at Provenza and Provenza looked back at him. Andy shook his head, because he knew the name that Provenza was going to say. "Yes, Captain, as a matter of fact we do have our own little firebug, but we haven't heard from him in a really, really long time" Provenza stated. "Who is that, Lieutenant?" Sharon asked. "Bill Croelick" Provenza said as he looked at Andy. Andy looked back at him and then at Sharon. Sharon looked at Andy. "Who is Bill Croelick?" she asked him. Andy just looked at her. He stood up and walked over to Sharon. "I think we need to go to your office, Captain" Andy said to her as he sighed. She did not look pleased and motioned for Provenza to join them in her office. Once everyone was inside, Sharon closed the door.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 2

Sharon sat down behind her desk and Andy and Provenza sat across from her. "Okay gentlemen, now can you please tell me who Bill Croelick is?" Sharon said to them. Andy took a deep breath and started to talk. "Alright, back in 2000, I arrested Croelick for the killing of his girlfriend, Anna Tandy. She was burned to death by Croelick. I didn't have any leads in the case until a friend of Anna's told me that Croelick had talked about killing Tandy while he was drunk. Unfortunately, four days into his trial, the witness dies of a drug overdose, and Croelick gets acquitted." Andy stated to Sharon who looked on with concern. "A couple of years later, I arrested Croelick again for another girl who was burned and murdered the same way as Tandy, he gets convicted and sent to jail" Andy said. "Only to get released when the person who was murdered turns up in the medical examiner's office again 3 years later" Provenza added. Sharon looked at Provenza and then looked back at Andy. Andy was now looking down at his feet. "So what happened after that?" Sharon asked them. "That dirt bag sued the LAPD for 4 million dollars and won for wrongful imprisonment" Andy sighed as he sat back in to the chair. "Do we know if Bill Croelick is still living in LA?" Sharon asked. "No Captain, we don't. He helped then Deputy Chief Johnson and us solve an arson fire in Griffith Park back in 2008 and that was the last we saw of him" Provenza said to her.

"Okay, Lieutenant Provenza, would you excuse us for a minute?" Sharon says to Provenza. "Of course Captain" Provenza says as he gets up from the chair and starts to head out the door. "This isn't going to be a problem, is it Andy?" Sharon asked softly to him. "What problem would there be?" Andy hesitantly asked her. "This is not his MO Sharon, so I think we could rule him out anyways" Andy said to her as he gestured with his hand. She rolled her neck as it was starting to stiffen up and glanced at the clock. 10:45 it said. "I know Andy, but until we know where he is for certain, I would like to leave him on our list" Sharon said to him. "I also don't want this team, especially you given your history with Croelick, to single out anyone that may appear on our list of potential suspects" Sharon added, and tried to be as calm as she could be. Andy sat there in silence as he looked at Sharon. He couldn't believe that she would think he would go after Croelick, after all these years. "Yes Captain" Andy said back in a muttered voice. He got up and left her office to go sit at his desk.

Sharon noticed a hint of disappointment in his voice; she hoped he did not take it personally. They had to make sure that the person involved in this crime was the correct one. And, until Mike and Buzz came back with that partial fingerprint, they had to have a list of potential suspects, which unfortunately for Andy, included Croelick's name now. She silently hoped that Provenza could verify Croelick's whereabouts as she wanted him off of their list of suspects right away, for the team's sake and especially for Andy's sake most of all. They discussed past cases before, but he had never once mentioned Bill Croelick's name to her. She now knew why, bad case bringing up bad memories. She just hoped that Andy's head could stay in the game as she would hate to pull him off this case due to a conflict.

Andy stood up and walked over to where Provenza was sitting at his desk. "Why did you even mention his name to her?" Andy asked him. Provenza looked up from what he was reading. "She asked a question, and I gave her an answer" he said back to Andy as he shrugged his shoulders. Andy shook his head and walked out of the office. He needed to cool himself down before something bad happened. Provenza got up and went after him. "Hey Flynn!" he yelled at Andy but Andy just ignored him. Sharon saw the little exchange between the partners but didn't want to interfere. Provenza finally caught up with him outside the breakroom. "Hey, what's the problem?" Provenza asked Andy. "Sharon doesn't want having his name on our list of potential suspects being a problem for me" he snickered at him as a Patrol Officer past them up. "Since you told her his name, even though we both know this is not his MO, she's keeping his name on our list" Andy continued. He then turned and walked in to the break room and sat down at one of the tables. He was glad that no one else was in there.

Provenza waited a second before going in to the breakroom and joining Andy. Andy was sitting at the table twisting his sobriety ring on his finger and staring at it. Provenza joined him at the table and sat down. "Alright Flynn, get your head out of your ass!" Provenza stated to him. Andy looked up and glanced over at him. "Big deal if the Captain keeps his name on our short list of suspects. I am waiting to verify where he currently lives and then, hopefully, we can take him off of our list" Provenza said. Andy didn't say anything and kept staring and twisting his ring. "Okay, what's really bothering you?" Provenza asked his friend.

Andy looked up at him and sighed as he looked back down at his wedding ring. "It just seems like everything has gone in disarray since the Dwight Darnell case" Andy started to tell his friend. "Darnell shot and killed Taylor, Sharon shot and killed Darnell, and then when we solve that case I end up in the hospital with my heart scare. I get released from the hospital and propose to Sharon that night. We go up to Monterey, and then run into Stroh. I kill him protecting her. We come back to LA and get married, as she didn't want to wait. I'm glad she didn't wait because I love her so much" Andy said to Provenza. Provenza just rolled his eyes. "We've caught a few cases since then, purchased a new house, and start to foster Matthew. And now, this arson case brings up Bill Croelick!" Andy concluded. "The Captain doesn't want him to be a problem for me. She doesn't want me to single him out" Andy huffed at Provenza. "Can you believe her saying that?!" he added. Provenza just looked at his friend. "No" Provenza said sarcastically.

"I don't want Sharon to be disappointed in me" Andy quietly said back to Provenza. "The Captain would not be disappointed in you Andy" Provenza looked at him. "You love her, right?" Provenza asked Andy. "Yes, of course I love her" Andy said. "I would do anything for her, she knows that" Andy added. "So what's the problem?" Provenza said back to him. "Look, Matthew is very lucky to have two loving foster parents. I know both you and the Captain got attached to him pretty much right away, otherwise Sharon would not have insisted that you take him in emergency foster care" Provenza said to his friend. He placed his hand on Andy's shoulder. "You are not going to mess that up or your marriage up for anything" he added sincerely. "You and I have both been down the road of a bad marriage and we both know how to not do things" Provenza said as he laughed. Andy had a slight smile on his face. "Now come on Flynn, you need to snap out of this or else your health is really going to take a tumble, and then she will blame me, and I don't need to be blamed by the Captain" Provenza said as he pointed his finger at Andy. Provenza's phone went off alerting to a text message from Mike. "Now, come on, Mike and Buzz are on their way back with the fingerprint" Provenza said to Andy as he started get up from the table.

Provenza and Andy walked back in to the Murder Room just as Mike and Buzz arrived back from the Fire Department. Sharon came out of the office as all four of them came back and looked at Provenza, who nodded to her and continued to walk to his desk. Andy made his way around the desks to his desk. Sharon took a step towards him at his desk and lightly touched his hand. That was their sign for reassuring the other person and Andy gave her a smirk as she did that. It was quick so that no one else in the room would notice except the two of them. She then walked over to Mike's desk where he was trying to run their partial fingerprint in their system. Andy followed her over there and stood next to her.

"This may take a while Captain" Mike said to her as he entered the fingerprint in the database. Sharon nodded and went over to Provenza's desk. Andy watched her walk over there. "Anything on our location, Lieutenant?" Sharon asked him. Provenza glanced up at her and shook his head no. "I contacted a place of last known employment for him, located in Fresno but the person on the phone could not verify anything" Provenza said to her. "Couldn't or wouldn't?" Andy stated. "Okay, while the fingerprint runs and we are waiting to hear back on a location of one of our potential suspects, let's see what else we can come up with regarding this case" Sharon told her team.

"Do we have a pattern on when this person lights up a house?" Andy asked as he looked at the pictures and the map of the houses on the Murder Board. "It looks random so far" Mike said. Amy's desk phone range and she answered it. "Thank you" Amy said and she hung up. Doctor Morales got an ID on our victim. His name is Jordan Richards, with a date of birth of January 16, 1981" Amy said as she wrote the information up on the board. Julio looked up his information on the Department of Motor Vehicles website and pulled up his picture. He placed a quarter in the jar on Provenza's desk and placed the picture on the board as well.

"Did our victim reside at the house where he was discovered?" Sharon asked Julio. "No ma'am, he listed a P.O. Box as an address on his license" Julio stated. "I'll run his records and see what we can get" Andy said as he walked back to his desk. Sharon walked back in to her office and sat down at her desk. Her phone alerted to a text message from Rusty. Rusty had sent a picture of the dog with them at a local park. 'Don't worry, I'm fine' it said. She was glad that Moxie was being taken care of while they were at work. One less worry Sharon would have today. She still worried about Andy but he seemed to be over what was bothering him before. She wondered how Matthew was doing at school. She was lost in thought and didn't hear the knock on her door until the third time. "Come in" she said, clearing her voice.

Andy walked in with some papers in his hands. He closed the door behind him and began to sit down across from Sharon. "Here is the report on Jordan Richards" Andy said as he handed her a copy of the report he ran. Sharon looked it over as Andy waited patiently. "Um, Captain, eh Sharon, I just wanted to apologize for my behavior earlier" Andy said in a low voice to her. Sharon looked up at him and gave a slight smile. "Andy, you don't need to apologize, I totally understand" Sharon said to him. She continued to read the report. "Are we okay then?" Andy asked and he motioned with his hand going back and forth between her and him. "Yes Andy, we are fine" Sharon reassured him and smiled. He smiled back at her. He took a deep breath as he sat back in the chair. "Are you still going to your meeting tonight?" Sharon asked him quietly. "Oh, uh yes, I was planning on it, unless we get a break in this case somehow" Andy said hesitantly. Sharon shook her head. "I think you should go to the meeting Andy, regardless of this case. That is more important" Sharon said to him as she looked him in the eyes. Andy nodded and sighed.

"The boys sent me a picture of Moxie, I guess they took him to a local park" Sharon said as she showed Andy her phone. "It's nice to know that they are taking care of him, I'm sure he will be tuckered out when he gets home" Andy said smiling to Sharon as he handed her phone back to her. Just then, there was a knock on her door. Mike opened the door to her office. "Captain, we have a match in our database to the fingerprint" Mike said as he handed the picture to Andy. Andy looked at the picture as his blood began to boil. "Who is it?" Sharon asked as Andy handed the picture over to her. "It's Croelick" Andy said in a huff and left her office.

Sharon looked at the picture in front of her. So this was Bill Croelick, Andy's nemesis if you would call him that. Sharon looked out the window to see where Andy was and saw him sitting at his desk. He was busy at his computer. "We need to know why his fingerprint was at that house" Sharon said to Mike. Mike looked back at Andy at his desk and then turned back to Sharon. "Right away Captain" Mike said and then left her office. Sharon stared at the picture before her and silently wished that they were done with this case.

About a half hour later Andy got up from his desk. "Captain!" Andy said to Sharon as he walked over to the printer to pick up something that he had just printed. Sharon came out to see what Andy had discovered. "What is it Lieutenant?" Sharon asked him. "It looks like our pyro friend Croelick had previously owned the house that was set on fire" Andy started to say as he wrote something up on the Murder Board. "But he sold that house back in 2010 to a Cora Richards" Andy continued. "Why would they lift his fingerprint from the house after 6 years?" Julio asked. "Maybe he was recently there?" Mike stated. "Who's Cora Richards?" Provenza asked. "She is the sister to Jordan Richards, our victim" Andy stated to him and placed her picture on the board as well. "Cora was the owner of the house when it burned down" Andy continued to read from the report as he handed it over to Sharon. "Do we know where she is now?" Sharon asked the team. Mike was typing something on his computer and brought up her current information. "She lives up in Fairfax" Mike said to them. "Go pay her a visit" Sharon told Julio, Amy and Mike. She then went back to her office.

Meanwhile, in the city of Fresno, Bill Croelick returns to work at the local cable company. "Hey, Bill, can you come in to my office?" Harry Corben stated who is the boss of the company. Bill looks around, "Okay" he says and follows him in. "Is there a reason why a detective from the LAPD is inquiring about your whereabouts?" Harry asks Bill. Bill shakes his head. "Did you get a name of the detective?" Bill asks. Harry looks at the piece of paper in front of him. "Yes, a Lieutenant Provenza called" Harry said and looked at Bill. "Are you in some sort of trouble?" he asked him. Bill looked back at his boss. "No, he's an old friend of mine from when I used to live in LA" Bill said back to him. "Anything else?" Bill asked him. Harry shook his head no. "Okay then, I'm done for the day" Bill says to Harry as he walks out of his office. He turns around. "Thank you" Bill says and then heads to his truck and leaves. He wonders if he should pay a visit to his old friends at the LAPD.

Sharon read over the rest of the information that Andy had printed out on Bill Croelick. They needed to find out where he was at so that they could rule him out as a suspect in this case. She would have to agree with Andy, that this was not his MO from what she had read about him so far. He liked to dismember his victim, well his girlfriend and then set them on fire. As if she didn't have enough worries on her mind, now that they confirmed the fingerprint to match a known arsonist, it had to be the one person from Andy's past that had gotten away. So now, she had to worry about Andy's behavior regarding Croelick. She knew he could be very professional, and given the circumstances around this case, she hoped she could count on him to do so.

Andy knocked on Sharon's door and stepped inside. "Did you want to have lunch before the rest of the team comes back?" Andy asked her as he stepped inside. "Yes, I would like that" Sharon said to him. "Where's Provenza?" she said to Andy as they walked out of the Murder Room. "He's in the breakroom, deciding what to eat from the meal that Patrice made for him" Andy laughed. They made their way into the breakroom as well and sat down to have some lunch that Sharon had made. After they were done with lunch, they all headed back into the office and waited for the rest of the team to come back from their assignment.

Mike, Julio, Amy, and Buzz return from interviewing and searching the house of Cora Richards. Sharon walks out of her office to join the group assembling at Provenza's desk. "So, what did you find out?" Provenza asks them. "Well, she did not know about her brother being killed and she didn't reside at the house that burned down since 2015" Mike stated to the group. "But she is the owner of that house, right Mike?" Andy asked him. "Oh yes, she freely admitted to being the owner of that house, but she didn't know who was living there at the time of the fire" Mike answered. "And you searched the house?" Sharon asked them. "Yes ma'am, we did not come up with anything concrete" Julio answered. "So, she's off our list of suspects then" Provenza stated. "Not so fast Lieutenant, I think we still need to keep her up there for now" Sharon stated. "How was she when you broke the news to her about her brother?" Sharon asked them. "She seemed genuine, not overdramatic at all" Amy stated.

"Any connection between Cora Richards and Bill Croelick?" Sharon asked her team. "You mean besides him selling the house to her?" Mike shook his head no. "There's got to be some connection here, we are just not seeing it yet" Sharon said to the team and then stared at the Murder Board going over all of the information they had. "Amy, did you mention the name Bill Croelick to Cora?" Sharon asked her. "Um, no Captain" Amy answered. "What did Jordan do for a living?" Sharon asked. "According to his file, he was self-employed" Andy stated and looked at Sharon. "So, no one misses him, not even his sister?" Sharon states. "I find that very hard to believe" Provenza added. "What are we missing?" Sharon whispered as she looked back at the board.

Two hours had passed since they came back from Cora Richards's house and they were nowhere near solving this case anytime soon. Chief Howard made his way into the Murder Room, wanting to know the progress the team was making on the new case he assigned them. He knocked on Sharon's door. "Come in" Sharon said and was surprised to see Chief Howard when he opened the door. "Chief" Sharon said as she sat behind her desk. "Captain, I just wanted to know how your team's progress was going on this arson-murder case" Chief Howard said to her as he sat down in one of the chairs in front of her desk. "We seem to be at a dead end right now. There are two potential suspects, a Cora Richards, the sister of the victim and Bill Croelick, who's fingerprint was lifted from the house of Cora Richards that was burned down" Sharon stated to him. "Wait a minute, did you say Croelick?" Chief Howard asked her. Sharon looked at him and sighed. "Yes, I know the history he has with the LAPD, especially with Lieutenant Flynn" Sharon said to him. "Have you been able to find him?" he asked her. "No, Provenza is currently working on that" Sharon said. "Be careful with Croelick, Sharon. He is dangerous" Chief Howard stated and then left her office.

Sharon looked at her watch and Matthew needed to be picked up soon as she didn't want him in the after school care for a long time, considering this was his first day there. She walked over to Andy's desk and settled her hand on his back. He turned his chair around to look at her. "Matthew needs to be picked up" Sharon said to him. "I can go get him and bring him back here if you want" Andy said back to her as he glanced at his watch. It was now 4 o'clock. She thought about it. She was debating to let her team go and then come back tomorrow morning with a fresh start on this case. "Okay" she said back to him and smiled. Andy got up and grabbed his suit jacket and then headed out the door to go pick up Matthew.

Sharon informed Provenza about what she was thinking regarding getting a fresh start tomorrow morning on this case as they weren't getting anywhere today. "We are all good for another hour Captain, besides I have a feeling something is going to pop up" Provenza said back to her. She went back into her office. She then texted Rusty just to let him know that they would be a little late coming home.

Andy pulled up at the school and parked his car. He went inside the school and found where the kids go for the after school care. He introduced himself to the teacher that was in charge there. "Hi, I'm Andy Flynn, Matthew Gomez's foster parent and I am here to pick him up" Andy said to her and he shook her hand. "Nice to meet you Mr. Flynn, can I see some ID?" the teacher asked him. "Sure" Andy said as he showed her his ID. She then looked at the chart she had and found his name. "I will go get Matthew for you, please wait right here" the teacher told him. Despite all of the doubts that he had been pondering the past day or so, Andy forgot all of them as soon as he picked Matthew up. Two minutes later, Matthew came running up to Andy. "Hi Andy" Matthew said to him. "Hey, how was school?" Andy said as they walked out of the school and back to his car. "It was a lot of fun, I learned all about snakes" Matthew said as he climbed into the car. "That's great" Andy said back to him as he made sure Matthew had his seatbelt on. Andy then climbed into the driver's seat and started the car. He texted Sharon that he and Matthew were on their way back.

"Are we going home now?" Matthew asked Andy as Andy drove back to the PAB. "No, I am taking you back to our office because Sharon is still there and then we will go home" Andy said as he explained to Matthew. Matthew wanted to see his dog, but he guessed he could wait a little while longer. "Okay!" Matthew said as he unzipped his backpack to look at the book his teacher had given him. Andy smiled to himself as he looked back in the rear-view mirror at Matthew. Maybe there was a reason for everything that had happened in the past couple of months he thought as he pulled in to the parking garage at the PAB. He helped Matthew out of the car and they walked into the building.

As they passed through the lobby, one of the officers stopped Andy. "Hey Lieutenant, a man was asking earlier about you and Lieutenant Provenza" the officer said to him. Andy looked at him and wondered who he was speaking about. "What did this guy want?" Andy asked him. "He said that Lieutenant Provenza was wondering where he had been and he just wanted to stop by and talk" the officer said. "Where did this man go?" Andy asked as he grabbed Matthew's hand. "He hung around for a little bit and then left, maybe five minutes before you came in?" the officer said to Andy. "Thanks!" Andy said as he looked around but didn't see anyone. He then walked with Matthew towards the elevators and headed up to Sharon and the rest of the team.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 3

Andy and Matthew made their way inside the Murder Room and Matthew went straight into Sharon's office and greeted her there. Andy made sure Matthew went into Sharon's office before heading over to where Provenza was at. "We have a problem" Andy said to him in a low voice. "What do you mean we?" Provenza asked him. "The officer at the desk stopped me before Matthew and I came up here and said there was a man downstairs earlier who was looking for you" Andy said to Provenza as they went out in to the hallway. "So?" Provenza said as he shrugged his shoulders. "So, that guy has to be Croelick" Andy continued. "Ok Flynn, if Croelick is here then why didn't he just say he was here and come up to see us, an officer could have escorted him up here" Provenza reasoned with Andy. Andy took a deep breath while looking at Provenza. "The officer said that the guy hung around and then left five minutes before I showed up here with Matthew" Andy said back to Provenza. "I think we should tell the Captain" Provenza said and then he started to walk back in to the office. Andy hung his head and followed him back.

They made their way towards Sharon's office and saw Sharon speaking with Matthew. Andy knocked on the open door as he came in. Provenza waited outside for a minute. "Um, Sharon, we may have a slight problem" Andy hesitantly said to her. She looked up at him as Matthew went to go sit at the table in the office. She shook her head slightly. "What kind of problem?" she asked him. Andy looked at Matthew and then back at her. "Ah, an officer downstairs said there was a guy looking for me and Provenza earlier" Andy started to tell her in a low voice. Sharon looked at him and then back at Matthew. "Okay" Sharon said as she walked over to where Matthew was sitting. "Matthew, I will be right back, you just work on that homework and I will look over it in a few minutes, okay?" Sharon said to the boy. Matthew just nodded.

They all walked over to the Murder Board and Andy informed the team what the officer downstairs had told him. "Mike, can you pull the security footage from downstairs?" Sharon asked him. "Yes" Mike said as he started typing on his computer and pulled up the image. "So, is this guy Croelick?" Mike asked. "It has to be, who else would ask for me and Provenza?" Andy stated. "Do you want us to find him outside and then bring him in for questioning?" Julio asked Sharon. Sharon really didn't want to keep Matthew here all night with them, but it was looking like she didn't have much of a choice in that matter. It was already after 5:30 and the building's official hours ended in a half hour. If Croelick really wanted to talk to Provenza and Andy like he told the officer downstairs, he would need to do it soon. "No, we will wait for him to show up again, and then we will go from there" Sharon stated as she looked at everyone. "In the meantime, let's close up here in a half hour and go home so we can get a fresh start tomorrow" she added as she walked back to her office and closed the door.

Andy didn't like the fact that Croelick was in the lobby earlier. He was being very bold by coming down there. They really don't know where he has been all these years, just bits and pieces they discovered while running their reports earlier in the day. Andy wasn't going to go to his meeting tonight, he wanted to stay with his family and protect them if Croelick was indeed in the area. Sharon wasn't going to like that but if anyone could persuade her, it would be Andy. "Are you ready to go?" Andy asked Sharon as he walked into her office. Sharon looked at him from her chair with a surprised look on her face. "Aren't you going to your meeting tonight?" Sharon said to him as he walked over to where Matthew was sitting. He started to help Matthew put his school work back into his backpack. He then walked over to Sharon. "No, I'm not" Andy said as he looked at her. Sharon gave him a look, but knew exactly why Andy wasn't going. "Look, there will be plenty of meetings that I can go to. I just want to be with you, especially if Croelick is in the area, okay?" he said to her and gave her his charming look. Sharon was hesitant to agree with Andy, she didn't want him threatening his sobriety over this case. "Fine, we'll discuss this later" Sharon said reluctantly and grabbed her things. The rest of the team already left.

They walked out and headed to the elevators. Matthew walked ahead of them and hit the button to call the elevator. Sharon and Andy came up behind him and waited. The doors opened and they walked in and the elevator took them to the garage level. They were going to take Andy's car home tonight so they could all drive together. Andy then drove them home. He didn't notice a pickup truck at the exit of the parking garage that had followed them towards the condo. He then pulled into the garage and all three of them got out of the car and headed inside. Croelick was in the truck that had followed them to the condo. "Well well Andy, looks like you have been busy since I left" Bill said to himself. He then drove off.

As they entered the condo, Sharon placed her keys on the table and toed off her heels, putting on more comfortable shoes. Matthew came running into the living room looking for Moxie who was sitting on the couch next to Gus. "Moxie!" Matthew ran up to the dog and the dog was excited that he was home. "I'll start dinner" Sharon said as she walked into the kitchen. "Hi boys" Sharon said to Gus and Rusty as she walked past them towards the kitchen. She then peered into the refrigerator to see what ingredients they had to make a quick dinner. "When was the last time Moxie went out?" Andy asked Gus as he sat down on the chair in the living room. Gus glanced at his watch. "Maybe two hours ago? If you want Lieutenant, I can take him out" Gus stated to Andy. Andy got up and shook his head. "No Gus, I'll take Moxie out" Andy said as he grabbed the dog's leash. "Come on Moxie!" Andy said to the dog and the dog came to him.

"Matthew, I would like for you to continue your homework, please" Sharon stated from the kitchen as she glanced to see what everyone was doing. Gus had turned on a cartoon show for Matthew. "I'm going to go see if your mom needs help in the kitchen" Gus said to Rusty as he walked towards Sharon in the kitchen. "Do you need any help in here?" Gus asked Sharon. She was standing at the stove, cooking some chicken beast strips and vegetables. "Uh, sure Gus, if you want to make either noodles or rice for this that would be great" Sharon said to him as she kept stirring the food. "I hope the dog wasn't too much trouble for you and Rusty today" Sharon said. "Oh, no trouble at all" Gus said to her.

Andy was walking the dog outside around the condo building and as the dog was sniffing the grass, he started barking for no reason. Andy looked around to see if maybe there was another dog in the area but he didn't see one. Moxie continued to bark straight ahead of them and Andy got a strange feeling. He looked around them and then headed back inside with the dog.

Dinner was almost ready by the time Andy came back in with the dog. Matthew was still watching a cartoon with Rusty as Sharon came into the living room. "Matthew I asked you to go do your homework, that was 20 minutes ago" Sharon said to the boy. Matthew looked up at her innocently. "Now please go wash your hands as it is time for dinner" Sharon told him and Matthew got up and headed for the bathroom. Sharon huffed and Andy came up to her. "Relax, he's just a kid Sharon" Andy said to her as he pulled her in for a hug. Matthew came bounding back towards the kitchen. "Dinner's ready" she said to him. Andy pulled her in for a kiss and then they joined everyone at the table. Gus asked Sharon who was going to watch the dog tomorrow and Sharon looked at Andy. "Oh, well, we were going to take him to a dog play and stay for the day. That way the dog can interact with other dogs and be able to run around" Andy said to them.

Gus left about an hour later with Rusty as they were going to the movies. Sharon gave Rusty some money for them watching Moxie all day long. Sharon was at her desk looking over some paperwork she had brought home from the case. Something wasn't adding up to her and she needed to figure it out quickly. Andy sat at the table with Matthew while he did his homework. All of a sudden Moxie jumped off the couch and headed for the front door, barking again. This startled Sharon and she looked up at Andy. "Stay here kid" Andy said to Matthew as he got up from the table and headed towards the front door. He glanced over at Sharon who was now getting up from her desk. He held up his hand gesturing for her to stay where she was. Moxie continued to bark at the door. "Moxie, enough" Andy said to the dog. Moxie sat down by the door and looked at Andy. Andy looked through the peep hole but didn't see anything. He grabbed his gun on his waist and slowly opened the door. He stepped out in to the hallway but no one was there. He then came back inside and locked the door.

"Anything out there?" Sharon asked him as he came back inside. "No" Andy said as he shook his head. Moxie then went to the kitchen and sat down by Matthew who was still sitting at the table. "That's odd, what would make the dog bark like that?" Sharon said. "You know, Moxie was barking a lot when I took him outside before dinner" Andy said to her. "What are you looking at?" Andy asked Sharon as she went back to her desk. "I brought some paperwork from the case home, something is just not adding up here" Sharon said to him. "I'm all done with my homework" Matthew called out to them. "Good, let me take a look at it" Sharon said to the boy as she smiled at Andy and walked over to Matthew. Andy took a deep breath and then looked at the paperwork Sharon had brought home. He knew that she wasn't going to get any sleep tonight if something was bothering her with this case, so he decided he would try and see what they were missing.

Two hours later with Matthew asleep now and Moxie in Rusty's room with him, Sharon and Andy were sitting on the couch looking over the papers. "Earlier today in my office, I didn't mean for it to sound like I didn't trust you" Sharon quietly said to Andy. Andy glanced up at her and put the papers he was holding on the coffee table in front of them. "Come here" he said as he held his arms open. She put the papers down as well and scooted over closer to Andy. "I know you didn't. I was being stubborn and my feelings got hurt. I'm sorry" he whispered to her as he held her close. "We need to bring Cora in tomorrow. I would like to speak to her. She's hiding something" Sharon said to Andy as she rubbed circles over his t-shirt. "What about Croelick?" Andy asked. "He will come to us, that's in his nature" she said to him. "Okay, but let's not talk about work anymore" Andy whispered to her as he leaned in for a kiss. Sharon adjusted her position on the couch and Andy scooted down so that he pulled her on top of him as they both stretched out on the couch. She was slowly kissing him and he was slowly kissing her back.

"Why didn't you go to your meeting tonight?" Sharon whispered to him as she laid on top of him, her head on his chest. He was rubbing her arms and back with his hands, holding her in his arms. "Because if Croelick is somehow involved in all of this, he is dangerous. I mean he showed up on the chief's doorstep many times when we were investigating him. I want you to be safe. And I want Matthew to be safe. I can't do that if I am at a meeting, Sharon" Andy quietly answered her. She just listened to him talk. "Besides, I was having doubts but you've helped me, better than any meeting" Andy said to her as she moved her head to look at him. "I love you" Sharon said to Andy and leaned down for a kiss. Andy kissed her back. "I love you too" he said to her. She got up and held out her hand for him to take and they made their way down the hall and in to their bedroom.

Friday morning came early at the condo. Andy woke up to an empty bed and glanced over at the clock. It was 5:15. He groaned as he shifted and moved to get up. He wondered where Sharon was at and then he heard the water running in the shower, so that answered his question. He got up and made his way to the bathroom. He saw Sharon's figure in the shower and he decided to join her. He opened up the shower door and slid in behind her. He started to message his hands on her back and shoulders and she turned around to face him. Andy looked at Sharon, who now had burns all over her body and there was smoke coming from the shower head. "Help me" Sharon said to Andy. Andy looked around and they were no longer in the shower but outside and he saw Croelick standing in the background.

Andy woke up, sweating trying to catch his breath. Sharon woke up as well as she heard Andy struggle to breath. She placed her hand on his chest to help him calm down. "Are you okay?" Sharon asked him and he shook his head yes. He was able to start breathing normally within seconds and Sharon checked his pulse. It was a steady beat and was going back to normal. "What time is it?" Andy asked her as he rubbed his forehead with his hand. She looked at the clock. "5:20" she said to him. Andy then swung his legs to the side of the bed and sat up. Sharon sat with him, rubbing her hand on his back. "Want to tell me about your dream?" Sharon asked him. "More like a nightmare" Andy stated. "You were in the shower and I joined you. As you turned around I saw you had burn marks all over your body. You asked me to help you. There was smoke coming from the shower and as I looked around I saw Croelick watching us" Andy said quietly to her. She continued to rub his back as they sat at the edge of the bed.

A few minutes later he stood up and turned on the lamp on the table. Andy looked back at Sharon and leaned down to give her a passionate kiss. "I'm going to take a shower now" Andy whispered to her as she held his face in her hands. He then walked towards the bathroom and turned the shower on. Sharon sat on the bed contemplating whether or not to join him. He wanted to desperately wash that nightmare out of his head. Every time he closed his eyes, he could picture Sharon with the burn marks and that shook him to the core. He stood underneath the running water and just let the water run down his body. He heard the door open and knew Sharon was joining him. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into her.

They both got dressed and by the time their alarm actually went off, Andy went in to wake up Matthew. Sharon traded places with Andy and help Matthew get dressed and ready for school. Andy took Moxie outside and they went for a short walk. By the time Andy and Moxie came back inside the condo, Matthew was already dressed and sitting on the couch reading a book on snakes. She looked up and saw the look on Matthew's face as he was telling her all about the different kinds of snakes. "That's really interesting" she said to him and smiled. Sharon was sitting at her desk, still going over some papers from the case. "Did you eat yet?" Andy asked Sharon as he walked past her. She took a sip of some tea she made. "No, not yet" she said to him as he made his way to the kitchen. Moxie followed Andy and waited until Andy fed him breakfast.

It was early enough that they weren't going to be rushing out of the condo so Andy decided to make his famous pancakes, but a heart healthier version of course so Sharon wouldn't yell at him. Sharon heard the mixing bowls clatter to the floor in a loud bang. "Andy?" she said as she got up and rushed over to the kitchen. "It's fine" Andy said to her as he saw her come in view. He had already picked up the bowls. "In our new house, I'm hoping you can let me arrange some items the way I like them?" he said to her with a smile. He would tease her from time to time about how her kitchen was arranged. "It depends, are you going to do all the cooking for us then?" Sharon teased him back. "Can you get the egg whites out of the fridge while you are here?" Andy asked her as he started to pour the ingredients in the mixing bowl. "Hmm, what are you making?" Sharon asked him as she gave him the carton of egg whites. "My famous pancakes, the healthy version of course" he said to her with his charming smile. "Of course" she said back to him smiling as well. She then returned to her desk.

"Matthew, do you want to help me with this?" Andy asked Matthew and he willingly joined him in the kitchen. "What are you doing?" Matthew asked him. "I'm making us pancakes for breakfast. Do you like pancakes?" Andy asked him. Matthew looked back at Andy for a second. "Yes" Matthew said. "Ok, great so just come over here and help me mix the ingredients in the bowl" Andy said to him as he brought a chair closer to the boy could kneel on it. Matthew helped Andy make the pancakes while Moxie watched them very closely making sure any batter that was dropped was licked up off the floor. Andy told Matthew to go sit at the table and then brought some dishes out for them to use. He placed all of the made pancakes on a plate and placed that on the table as well. He then called out to Sharon. "Breakfast is ready, my dear" he said to her as she made her way to the table.

Once everybody was set, they left the condo to drive Matthew to school and to drop off Moxie at a Doggie Day Care center Andy had heard about. As they pulled up to Matthew's school, Sharon got out of the car to walk Matthew up to the entrance. "Have fun kid" Andy said to him as he waited in the car. Sharon brought him to the front door of the school. "Be good and have fun Matthew" she said to him as she gave him a hug. He hugged her back and made his way inside. Sharon then made her way back to the car. Andy drove them to the Doggie Day Care place in Hollywood. Sharon waited in the car while Andy took Moxie inside. The place was very nice and had great reviews on the web. Plus they were open late which Andy thought was a plus given their work schedules. Andy came back to the car and sat inside. "Everything okay?" Sharon said as she looked at him. "Fine, Moxie didn't even turn around, just went with the worker and joined all of the other dogs there" Andy said to her. She laughed. "Just like a child" Sharon said as he started to drive to work.

They arrived at the Murder Room and everyone was already there. As Sharon walked towards her office, she called for Lieutenant Tao to follow her. "I want to speak with Cora Richards this morning, please bring her in for questioning, but she is not under arrest so act accordingly Mike" Sharon said to him. "Right away Captain" Mike said and then left her office. He took Amy with him. Provenza was at his desk and Andy was sitting at his desk. Julio was speaking to Buzz about something when Provenza's desk phone rang. "Great" he muttered and tried to get the attention of Flynn. "My, my, my, looks like you guys have moved up in the LAPD world" Croelick stated to them as he walked into the room.

Flynn stood up and moved quickly over to where Croelick was standing. "You son of a bitch" he said to him and then turned Croelick around and patted him down. "Lieutenant, always a pleasure" Croelick said as Andy finished his pat down. Sharon saw the commotion from her office and came out to see what was going on. Croelick turned around and waved to Provenza and Julio. He then looked at the lady he had seen with Andy last night. He smiled at her. "Hi, I hear you have been looking for me" Croelick said to Sharon as he held out his hand for her to shake. "Right" Sharon said to him but did not reach out her hand. "Lieutenant, please escort our guest to the conference room, I'll be right there" Sharon said to Andy as she looked at Croelick. "Sure Captain" Andy said and he showed Croelick the way to the conference room.

"So Lieutenant, do you like working for her?" Croelick said hoping to get a rise out of Andy. "She's very attractive. I can see why you are with her" Croelick said as Andy brought him into the conference room. "What do you know about her?" Andy said gritting his teeth. Croelick just smiled back at him and had a seat. "Where is just plain Brenda?" he asked Andy. "She left for another job" Andy said back to him. "Tell me, do you find it hard to take orders from her at work and at home?" Croelick asked him as Sharon stepped into the room with Provenza. Andy just stared at him. "Hello, Bill, I believe you know your rights" Sharon said as she walked in to the room. "I don't think we've met before. My name is Captain Sharon Flynn" Sharon said to him as she sat down on the opposite side of the table. Andy stood on her left and Provenza stood by the door. "Oh, you're married to each other, that would explain it then" Croelick said to her. "Explain what?" Sharon asked him. "Why I saw the two of you last night together going in to a condo building with a child" Croelick said as he shifted in his chair.

This of course made Andy's blood boil and Sharon knew it too. She didn't want to give Croelick any advantages during this questioning period so she moved the interview along. "I need you to explain a couple of things Mr. Croelick" Sharon started to say to him. "Oh, you can call me Bill, Sharon" Croelick said to her. "First of all, Bill, where were you two nights ago?" Sharon asked him. He looked back at her from across the table and then looked at Andy. He held a smirk on his face. "Well, so much for the pleasantries. I was in Fresno, at my house. Next question?" Croelick said to her. "Do you know a Cora Richards?" Sharon asked him. He looked at her with his fiery eyes. She was nothing like Brenda. "Yes" he said as he stared at her. "Who is Cora, Bill?" Sharon asked him. "Before I answer that Sharon, you need to answer a question of mine" Croelick said back to her. Andy moved forward and placed his hands on the table. "We're not playing your games here Croelick!" Andy said to him. Sharon interjected for a second. "No, it's okay Andy. What's your question?" Sharon asked him.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 4

"Did you look for somebody else, or did Andy automatically assume me due to past practices?" Croelick asked Sharon. "I am just trying to get you off of my list of suspects, that's all" Sharon said to him as she shifted in her chair and leaned forward. "Now, tell me Bill, who is Cora?" Sharon asked him. He figured that she didn't want to play along like Brenda did, she wasn't going to budge even once. "Okay Sharon, Cora's my girlfriend, or she was my girlfriend as we broke up" Croelick stated to her. Sharon looked over at Provenza who was still standing by the door. "Where were you two weeks ago?" Sharon asked him. "I was in Fresno" he said. "If you were in Fresno, then why did we find your fingerprints in a house that was burned down two weeks ago?" Provenza asked him. Croelick looked over at where the Lieutenant was standing and smiled. "Now, you are talking about the house that I sold to Cora, right?" Croelick said as he smiled at all of them.

"I'll just make this short and sweet so that you all can move on with your investigation" Croelick stated to Sharon, Andy, and Provenza. "Cora and I broke up a couple of months ago. She was, what do you call it, a control freak and took the break up pretty bad" Croelick started to say as Andy smirked at him. "A control freak, huh?" Andy said to Croelick. Croelick looked at Andy and then returned his focus to Sharon. "She kept talking about how her brother owed her all of this money and that every time she would ask him, he would always put her off" Croelick continued as he shifted again in his chair. "She asked me to get the money back for her but then when I refused, she went all crazy on me so I broke it off" he said as he rolled up his sleeves. "She took a knife to my arm, here and here" he said as he pointed them out.

"Did you get stitches for those wounds?" Andy asked as he gritted his teeth. "Yes, I went to the St. Agnes ER and got treated there" Croelick answered. "When was this?" Sharon asked him. "September 20th" Croelick answered her. "You can check if you want" he added and smiled. "Oh we will check, Bill" Sharon said to him. "Then what happened?" Sharon asked him. "I left and went back home to Fresno" Croelick said as he sat back and folded his hands on the table. "We will be right back, Bill" Sharon said as she stood up and Andy followed her along with Provenza out the door. "Take your time, Captain. I am enjoying the new place" Croelick said back to her and waved. Two patrol officers stood outside the conference room.

"I don't trust him" Andy said to the two of them as they went into electronics. "What is he doing Buzz?" Sharon asked Buzz who was sitting at the computer screen. "Nothing, he's just looking around but he's still sitting down" Buzz answered her. "For someone who hates the LAPD and sued the city he sure seems comfortable there" Provenza stated. "He needs our protection" Sharon said as her phone rang and she answered it. It was Mike calling her to tell her that they had an issue bringing Cora in. "What's the issue, Lieutenant?" Sharon asked him as she looked at Andy. "She ran but we caught her" Mike simply said. "Alright I want patrol to help you and I am sending Julio and Buzz there to conduct a search warrant. I want to know why she ran from us" Sharon said and then hung up her phone. Andy looked at her. "Meanwhile, I want to figure out if our guest is telling us the truth" Sharon said to Andy and Provenza.

Provenza called the hospital where Croelick said he went to and they were only able to say that they had treated him for knife cuts on his arms the day he said he went there. Andy looked up Cora's financials and discovered that she owed a lot of money. Andy showed that report to Sharon. "She probably burned the house down to collect the insurance money but that still doesn't explain the other houses though" Andy said to her as she looked over the report. "Let's go ask our guest what else he can tell us about Cora" Sharon said and Andy followed her to the conference room.

"Did you miss me so soon?" Croelick said as they came back in and had a seat across from him. "Don't press your luck" Andy said back to Croelick. Croelick glared back at Andy but then looked at Sharon as she started to talk. "I think Cora tried to frame you Bill" Sharon said to him. "She knew about your history right? That you loved fire so much?" Sharon said. "What a better way of revenge then to frame a known arsonist for arson" Sharon continued as Croelick looked at her. Croelick didn't know what Sharon was trying to do. "My question is, how would she know how to start a fire in a home without getting the help or the knowledge of someone who has experience?" Sharon asked Croelick. He looked at her and then looked at Andy. "Did you tell her the best way of starting a fire is to use an incendiary agent?" Sharon asked him. "No, I didn't tell her" Croelick said and he started to get mad. "I had nothing to do with these fires at all" he insisted and pounded his fist on the table. Andy jumped up and Sharon placed her hand on his arm. "Okay, okay Bill, no one is accusing you of starting the fires" Sharon said as she tried to calm him down. She looked at Andy to make him calm down as well. Andy sat back down next to her. "Why don't you go talk to her, Sharon. I think I am done here anyways" Croelick stated to Sharon as he started to stand up.

Andy and Sharon both stood up. "Why did you come down here in the first place?" Sharon asked Croelick. "You could have just verified your whereabouts over the phone" she added. Croelick looked back at Sharon. He didn't have an answer for her. "It was nice meeting you Sharon. I hope we see each other soon" Croelick stated as he walked out. "So we are just going to let him walk out of here?" Andy said. "We don't have anything to hold him on" Sharon simply said. "What about stalking? Sitting outside the condo watching us walk in" Andy said to her. "A judge is not going to hold him on that alone" Sharon explained to Andy. "He'll be back" Sharon said as they left the conference room.

As Croelick was exiting towards the hallway, Mike and everyone else were heading inside with Cora in handcuffs. Julio and Amy were carrying evidence boxes from the search warrant. Croelick came back inside the Murder Room. "You need my help" Croelick said to Sharon as Mike placed Cora in an interview room. "I thought you were done, Bill?" Sharon said back to him as she stopped and stood by Andy. Andy was watching Croelick's every move when he re-entered the Murder Room. Croelick moved closer to Sharon, but Andy stepped in his way. Croelick smiled. Andy looked at him. "You need my help to convict her" Croelick stated to Sharon as he tried to look around Andy. "Is that so" Sharon said to Croelick.

Croelick found himself sitting in an interview room with a pad of paper in front of him on the table. Andy was sitting across from him. They were staring at each other. "Do you think this was a good thing, to just let Andy be in there alone with him?" Provenza asked Sharon who was sitting next to him in electronics. "Andy is not going to do anything, Lieutenant. Besides, if he truly is here to help then Croelick will behave himself" Sharon said to Provenza as she looked at the monitors. "Just like old times, huh Andy?" Croelick said to Andy as he picked up the pen and started to write down his statement. Andy just stared at him. "That's quite a woman you've got there too. She's very" Croelick said to him and smiled. Andy shifted forward in his chair. "I'd be careful what you say next" Andy said to him, pointing his finger at Croelick. Croelick just looked back at Andy, smiled and continued to write. Sharon's gaze drifted to the monitor with Cora inside the room now. Mike and Amy were interviewing her.

"So Cora, why did you run from us this morning?" Amy asked her as they sat across from her in the room. "I didn't know what you guys wanted, so I ran" Cora said to them. "Really? Cause all we wanted was to talk with you about your brother's murder and the recent house fires" Mike said to her. Cora just looked at them, not blinking. "You see here, it looks like you owed some money. So what we think is that you burned down the house you own to collect the insurance money, but that wasn't enough so you killed your brother too" Mike continued to speak to her. Cora shook her head. "No, that's not it at all" she said to them. "Cora, we found the evidence in your basement, the white phosphorus powder, the bloody crow bar you used to hit your brother, it all matches up" Amy said to Cora.

DDA Hobbs walked in to the electronics room and saw Sharon and Provenza sitting there watching the interviews. "DDA Hobbs, so nice of you to join us" Provenza said as she walked in. "I heard you might be needing a DA for your case here. What do you have so far?" Andrea said to them. "Well, we have our known arsonist, Bill Croelick, in interview room 1. And then we have Cora Richards, who looks like she will be confessing soon in interview room 2" Provenza said to her. "What is Bill Croelick doing here?" Andrea asked them. She had heard about him through the years but never had the chance to prosecute him. "He's Cora's ex-boyfriend and he said that we need his help to convict her" Sharon said to Andrea.

"I want a lawyer" Cora said to Mike and Amy as she sat in the room. She couldn't understand how they had connected the dots on everything so quickly. The room was starting to spin and things were starting to get out of her control. "Did you hear me? I want a lawyer" Cora yelled as she slammed her fist on the table. "Hey, you need to calm down now!" Mike stood up and pointed at her. "We will get you a lawyer" Amy said as they got up and left the room. Two patrol officers then entered the room to watch Cora.

Mike went back to his desk to call a defense lawyer for Cora while Amy headed towards electronics. "I think she's crazy, Captain" Amy said as she walked behind them and leaned against the table in the back. "She may be, Amy. But we still need a confession, which will have to wait until her lawyer gets here" Sharon said as she turned her attention to the monitor with Croelick and Andy on it. "Tell me something Andy, is she bossy in bed too?" Croelick said as he wrote down his statement. Andy was biting his lip throughout this. He promised Sharon that he would be professional when dealing with Croelick, but right now he was boiling. "Listen, you little shithead, I'm not here not talk about the Captain, so just write your damn statement so you can leave!" Andy said to Croelick. Croelick started laughing at Andy. "What's so funny?" Andy asked him. Croelick shook his head. "You've changed Andy. You have your little family now, well in addition to your other family, you know your daughter and your son, ex-wife and Sharon's children, don't forget them" Croelick said to him as he looked at Andy. "He's fixated on you and him, you know that Captain" Provenza said to Sharon as she stood up. "Yes, Lieutenant, I know" Sharon said as she made her way out the door.

Sharon opened the door to interview room 1 and she entered the room. Croelick looked up from his writing and greeted Sharon as she entered. "I knew you couldn't stay away from me" he said to her as she sat down next to Andy. "Are you almost done here Bill, I'd hate to keep you here longer than necessary" Sharon said to him. "It's always business with you, isn't it?" Croelick said back to her. "I was just catching up here with Andy, just like the good ole days" Croelick added and smiled at Andy. Andy just stared back at him. Sharon slipped her hand on Andy's thigh to calm him down. "There, all done" Croelick said as he handed the pad of paper to Sharon. Sharon read over his statement. "The DA may have to call you in to be a witness for this case" Sharon said to Croelick as he stood up. Andy and Sharon stood up as well. "Oh, I'm counting on that Sharon" he said as he winked to her and stepped out of the room. Andy followed him out of the room and towards the exit. When Croelick reached the hallway he turned around to see Andy right there. He made his way to the elevators and Andy was right behind him. "See you around Lieutenant!" Croelick said to Andy as he waved and stepped on the elevator. Andy took a deep breath and headed back in the Murder Room.

As the team waited for Cora's attorney to arrive, Sharon was in her office talking with Andrea. Sharon saw Andy walk back in to the room. She caught his eye as he walked by her office. "Here's his statement, unfortunately I think it is going to help your case on Cora" Sharon said as she handed the pad of paper to Andrea. Andrea looked it over and agreed with Sharon. "So, this may not be the last time we see Bill Croelick" Andrea said to Sharon as she looked back at her. Sharon just shook her head no. "Okay, I am going to prepare for Cora's lawyer, excuse me" Andrea said as she left Sharon's office.

Andy knocked on the trim of the doorway before he entered Sharon's office. Sharon looked over as he entered and sat down. He looked exhausted. "You don't know how many times I pictured myself punching Croelick in the face every time he spoke about you" Andy quietly said to Sharon. Sharon leaned on her desk. "I know it was difficult for you but I really appreciate how cool and calm you were, you didn't bite into his bait, as much as he wanted you to do" Sharon said quietly back to him as she looked at him and smiled. "I'd like to know how he knew about our kids" Andy said to her as she grabbed his right hand and held it in her hand.

Cora's defense lawyer showed up at the office within thirty minutes of being called. Andrea and Sharon sat in the interview room. "Hello Cora, I am Captain Flynn, this is Deputy District Attorney Hobbs" Sharon said as sat down. "Why don't you tell us what happened two nights ago?" Sharon asked her. "I was at my home, and my brother was over there, we were talking and then there was smoke coming from inside the house. Jordan went over to see where the smoke was coming from and he told me to get out of the house" Cora said to them. Sharon and Andrea both looked at each other. "Chris, if your client doesn't start telling the truth, I will have no other options for charging her" Andrea said to Cora's lawyer. Her lawyer and Cora conferred with each other as Sharon and Andrea watched them.

Cora then looked at Sharon but didn't say anything. "I have a signed witness statement that implicates your client" Andrea said to her lawyer. "Cora, you knew what you were doing, right?" Sharon said to Cora as she sat across from her in the room. Cora just looked at Sharon. "You knew what you were doing when you set fire to those houses" Sharon continued. "I needed the money" Cora said quietly. "What about your brother?" Sharon asked hesitantly. "He owed me money and kept blowing me off, so when I confronted him about how much he owed me, we fought, and I hit him over the head with a crow bar. I didn't mean to kill him" Cora said. "You asked your boyfriend to collect the money from him first, right. But then what happened?" Sharon asked her. "He refused, so I cut him with a knife" Cora said.

Andrea offered a deal for Cora and her lawyer to take. Cora's lawyer looked it over and did not agree to the terms. "Come on Chris, you do not want to take this to a jury, you will lose then" Andrea said to her lawyer. "Your witness is a known arsonist, I'll take my chances with a jury" Cora's lawyer told Andrea. "Plus, he was a bad influence on her when they were dating" he added. "So you're saying because she was Bill Croelick's girlfriend, he influenced her to start fires and kill her brother?" Andrea inquired. "I'll take my chances with an insanity defense" her lawyer told Andrea. "We are done here so arrest my client so that we can move forward" he said as he stood up. Andrea and Sharon both stood up. "Cora Richards, you are under arrest for the murder of your brother Jordan Richards and the arson fires" Sharon said to Cora as two patrol officers entered the room and placed Cora in handcuffs. They escorted her out of the room and her lawyer along with Andrea followed her to booking.

Andy was waiting for Sharon outside of the interview room. Julio was taking lunch orders for the team. Both Andy and Sharon ordered salads and then Sharon went back in her office. "How did Croelick know about our children?" she asked herself as she sat down behind her desk. It had turned out to be a long day as she glanced at the clock and saw the time. 2:35 was the time now and Sharon was glad that they had solved this case in time to enjoy the weekend, possibly. Her team was not on call this weekend, which was a good thing that Chief Howard did. He had changed the schedule since he had given them the arson case to solve. And as soon as everyone finished up their reports, she was going to send them all home. She was looking forward to the weekend because Nicole was going to set up something for her family to meet Matthew. She wanted Matthew to be able to fit in and hoped he would enjoy playing with children around his own age.

Andy knocked on the door and entered with their salads. He placed them down at her desk and pulled up a chair to start eating his salad. "If you want I can go pick up Matthew at school this afternoon" Andy said to her. She looked at him, not touching her salad yet. "I'd like to do that" Sharon said to him. He nodded and continued to eat his salad. "Then I will hit a meeting and then pick up Moxie and head home" Andy said to Sharon. Sharon nodded and started to eat her salad. Andy noticed that she barely touched her salad. "What's wrong?" Andy asked her. "How did he know about our kids, Andy?" Sharon asked him. He looked back at her. "I don't know" Andy said as he shrugged his shoulders. He now looked at her with concern. "Hey, he's not going to do anything to the kids, okay?" Andy said reassuring her. She nodded at him but was still concerned about it.

"So, since we solved this case, before the weekend, and I heard Chief Howard put another division on call for this weekend, why don't we start the moving process to the new house?" Andy said, hoping that by changing the topic, it would relieve Sharon's concern. Sharon smiled at him. He was excited to move in to the new house, and so was Sharon. "We could start doing that, we need to order a new bedroom set for Matthew's room among other things" Sharon said to him. "We can just move the little things for now, and save the big move for later" Andy said to her. "Well, your daughter also wants to meet Matthew this weekend, she was going to set something up" Sharon added to the conversation. "We could do both, the moving could be in the morning and then we would have the afternoon and evening free for the get together" Andy said. "I'll let her know" Sharon said as she placed her fork down on her desk. "You're not hungry?" Andy asked her. "No" Sharon sighed as she looked over some papers on her desk.

She was still bothered by Croelick, he could tell. Hell, he was too if he was being honest. That guy always knew how to push his buttons. "I followed Croelick out when he left before" Andy confessed to Sharon as she looked back at him. "That's where I went" he added as she looked at him trying to figure out what he was talking about but then realized when he had done this. "You didn't do anything to him when he left, did you?" Sharon asked him as she raised her eyebrows. "No, although I really wanted to" Andy sighed as he sat back in the chair.

The team had submitted their reports to Sharon one by one and Andy was the last one to submit his report to her. He was having a difficult time writing his report about Croelick. "Ye gods Flynn, are you almost done over there? Some of us would like to go home today!" Provenza said to Andy from across the room. "Yes, I'm done old man, there are you happy now?" Andy said as he stood up and walked over to the printer to pick up his report. Walking back to his desk, he deposited some coins into Provenza's jar. "Alright, let's go everyone!" Provenza said as he stood up from his chair and put his suit jacket on. He looked over at his friend who was standing by his desk staring into Sharon's office. He could tell something was bothering Andy. "Are you coming Lieutenant?" Julio asked as everyone was walking out. "Uh, you go ahead, enjoy your weekend" Provenza said as he walked over to join Andy.

"Hey, Flynn, everything okay?" Provenza asked Andy as he walked up to him. Andy looked over at his friend who had a concerned look on his face now. "Yeah" Andy said and then looked down at his shoes. "Is your heart okay?" Provenza said in a low and quiet voice to not alert the Captain. Andy looked back at him. "Yes, it's fine" Andy said to him. Provenza looked back at him, hoping his friend was telling him the truth. "I'm good, really, okay?" Andy said. "Okay" Provenza said to him and then started to walk out. "Have a good weekend" he said to Andy and waved as he exited the office.

Andy walked in to Sharon's office. "Are you ready to go?" he asked her as he handed his report to her. "Yes, thank you" Sharon said as she filed his report away. He held her purse for her as she put on her jacket and then handed it back to her. "Thank you" she whispered to him. "You're welcome" he whispered back to her and they left the office together. Andy was silent in the elevator as they rode down to the parking garage. He walked her to her car and waited for her to unlock it before leaning in and giving her a passionate kiss on her lips. "I love you" he said to her as they pulled apart. He could never say those words to her enough and she never got tired of hearing them from him. "I'll see you at home" she said to him as she touched his cheek with her hand. He nodded and she stepped in her car and drove to Matthew's school.

Andy walked to his car and got in and started to drive to his meeting. There were a lot of things on his mind. Sharon, of course. Croelick and how much he hated dealing with him. And the desire to have a drink. The last one had never been so strong before in Andy's mind for a long time. When Andy arrived at his meeting, he went inside the church and sat towards the front. One of the members was setting up the chairs and getting things ready. Andy sat there twisting his sobriety ring around his finger. His sponsor showed up and sat down next to Andy. "Rough day?" he said to Andy. "You could say that" Andy said to him. The meeting started ten minutes later.

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** Thank you all for your reviews so far regarding this story. Things might get a little bumpy down the road for Sharon and Andy in this chapter. And, yes, we haven't seen the last of Bill Croelick. Okay, before I give away too much up here, on with the next chapter...

Chapter 5

Sharon arrived at Matthew's school and she walked inside to the after school care to pick him up. Sharon approached the area and smiled at the teacher who was standing at one of the tables. "Hello, I'm Sharon Flynn, I'm here to pick up Matthew Gomez" she said to the teacher. "Nice to meet you, your husband came yesterday to pick him up, right?" the teacher asked as she checked off Matthew's name. "Yes, that's right" Sharon said to her wondering where she was going with this. "Matthew is such a wonderful person to have here" she said as she checked Sharon's ID. "That's always a good thing to hear" Sharon said back to her. "I'll go get him" the teacher said and then went to go get Matthew.

Matthew came with his backpack and a goodie bag in his other hand. "It was Nicholas's birthday today so he was passing these bags out to the children" the teacher said to Sharon. "Thank you" Sharon said as she left with Matthew. "So, did you have a good day here?" Sharon asked him. "Yes, we learned about other reptiles today and what animals live in the desert" Matthew said with a smile as he walked with Sharon to her car. As he sat in the back seat, Sharon looked at the goodie bag he received. "Let's see what you received in here" Sharon said to Matthew as she looked. There was a pencil, a small pencil sharpener, and a small pad of paper, all Star Wars themed. Then there was a couple of fun size candy bars. "Can I have a piece of candy?" Matthew asked. "Sure, just one piece" Sharon said as Matthew put his seatbelt on. Sharon then drove them home to the condo. "Are we picking up Moxie?" Matthew asked her. "No sweetie, Andy is going to do that after he is done" Sharon said to him and continued to drive.

Sharon and Matthew arrived at the condo a short time later and Matthew went to the kitchen and started his homework. Sharon didn't have to tell him this time. Perhaps he was getting the routine down. Sharon was going to make them dinner and she decided after looking at the contents of the refrigerator that they were going to have baked pork chops and potatoes. She placed everything in the oven and set the timer for 45 minutes. She then sat down next to Matthew to see what kind of homework he had. "So what are you working on, Matthew?" Sharon asked him. "Some addition problems" Matthew said and showed her the worksheet he had to do. She glanced at her watch. Andy should be getting done with his meeting soon and then head over to pick up Moxie and come home. She then looked at Matthew's take home folder to see what else was inside. Rusty came home from his college classes. He walked in to the kitchen area. "Hi" he said to Sharon and Matthew. "Hello" they said back. Rusty grabbed a banana and headed over to the couch. "You are not seeing Gus tonight?" Sharon asked him. "No, he's working late tonight. Where's Andy?" Rusty said. "He went to a meeting and then he was going to pick up the dog" Sharon said to Rusty.

Andy told his story to the people at the AA meeting and he spoke to his sponsor afterwards as well. Andy felt better as the craving wasn't as bold as it was prior to his meeting. He headed over to pick up Moxie. Moxie came out of the Doggie Day Care place all tuckered out. The staff said that Moxie was such a nice dog and even gave Andy a report card on Moxie's behavior and what he did during the day. Andy had to laugh at that as he read it when Moxie and him got in the car. Andy sat there for a while before turning the engine on. He knew he should head home because Sharon, Rusty, and Matthew were waiting for him. He started the car and after a few minutes, drove home to the condo.

By the time Andy got home with the dog, dinner was almost ready. Rusty had set the table for them and Matthew was all done with his homework. Moxie came in to the condo and slept on the blanket that Andy had gotten him. Matthew went over to Moxie asking him about his day and telling Moxie about his school. Andy handed Sharon the report card he received from the Doggie Day Care place and Sharon laughed. "Wow, that is kind of neat" she said to him. Andy looked back at Sharon and everything else disappeared. He pulled her in close to him and held her in his arms. Sharon relaxed and closed her eyes for a couple of minutes as he held her. "Everything okay?" she asked him with a muffled voice. "It is now" he said whispering in her ear. Rusty groaned as he walked in the kitchen and saw them. They pulled apart when the timer went off. "Dinner's ready" Sharon said to the group.

They all sat down and ate dinner and Rusty talked about one of his classes he attended today at college. Then Matthew talked about all of the different reptiles that he learned about in science class today. Andy held Sharon's hand as the boys spoke and he smiled at her. She smiled back at him as she listened to them talk. After dinner, Matthew helped Andy clean up the table. He then went to the couch and joined Rusty who was watching some show on TV. "I hope that is kid approved" Sharon yelled out and Rusty changed the channel to something more appropriate.

Andy joined Sharon at the table. He needed to tell her about his craving and promised his sponsor that he would. "I have to tell you something, I'm not sure what brought it up, or why it was so strong today of all days" Andy said as he looked at her. She looked intently back at him. He looked down away from Sharon. Sharon placed her hand on his chin and moved his head so that he was looking back at her. "What is it?" Sharon said to him in a low voice so the boys didn't hear them. Andy took a deep breath. "I had a really strong craving for a drink tonight when I left work" Andy said to her.

"Did you have a drink?" Sharon quietly asked him, although she already knew the answer. "No" he said with a quiet voice. "Did you speak to your sponsor?" Sharon asked him as she rubbed his hand with her hand. "Yes, he met me at the meeting" Andy said. "It's been awhile since I have felt anything like that and I knew that I couldn't disappoint you, that there is more at stake this time than just me" Andy continued as Sharon listened to him. He had tears in his eyes at this point. "Oh Andy, you could never disappoint me" Sharon said to him as she cupped his chin with both of her hands. A tear fell from his eye and Sharon wiped it away with her finger. "I'm glad you told me about this and that you spoke with your sponsor at your meeting" Sharon said to him.

"Were you still thinking about moving some of your stuff tomorrow morning?" Sharon asked him as she stood up in the kitchen. "Yes" he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist and peeked over to the couch to see if they would be interrupted. Both Rusty and Matthew were still watching TV. Andy slowly pulled Sharon in for a kiss. Sharon let out a moan as Andy broke their kiss. He smiled at her as she smiled back at him. Sharon's phone alerted to a text message. She moved back to the kitchen table and saw the message from Nicole. 'Are you free tomorrow afternoon/evening around 4?' it said. "Your daughter wants to know if we are free tomorrow around 4pm" Sharon said to Andy. "Um, sure I think so" Andy said back to her as he put away a few more things in the kitchen. Sharon replied to Nicole's message 'Yes, we are' and waited. 'Great, come over to our house, we will cook, can't wait to meet Matthew' Nicole replied back. "They want us to come over to their house tomorrow evening for dinner" Sharon said as she rejoined Andy in the kitchen. He was putting some pots away when she came up next to him.

Matthew and Rusty were watching TV when Matthew got up and went to the kitchen. Moxie looked up at the kid who walked past him and then placed his head back down as he was tired from all of the playing he did today. Matthew looked at the table first and then found Sharon and Andy in the kitchen by the sink. "Um, Sharon?" Matthew said in a small voice. Sharon turned around and saw Matthew behind them. "Yes, sweetie?" Sharon said to him. "Can I have dessert?" he asked. Andy smiled at the kid. "Sure, buddy" he answered before Sharon could answer him. "I think we have some ice cream in the freezer" Andy said as he opened the freezer door to look inside. "Chocolate or Vanilla?" he asked the boy as he took both containers out. "Chocolate!" Matthew said as he watched Andy get him a scoop of ice cream. "Here you go" Andy said as he handed him the bowl. "Thank you" Matthew said as he then sat down at the table and enjoyed the ice cream. "It's the simple things that he enjoys" Andy said to Sharon as she watched him. "Hmm, yes it is" Sharon said to him as he slipped a hand on her back.

Rusty came in from the living room and noticed them standing by the sink watching Matthew. He shook his head. 'Yep, they were definitely weird' he thought to himself. "Buzz texted me a couple of minutes ago, we are going to meet up and go see a movie tonight" Rusty told Sharon and Andy. Sharon nodded. "Okay, Rusty. Just be careful and have fun. What movie are you going to see?" Sharon said to Rusty. "Doctor Strange. Buzz really wants to see it" Rusty said as he made his way to the front door. "Hey, if you are around tomorrow morning, I might be going over to the new house to bring some things there, if you want to help" Andy said to Rusty before he left out the door. "Uh, sure. I'll see. Bye" Rusty said as he left. Andy looked back at Sharon who shrugged her shoulders. She then took out a bowl and gave herself a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Andy stole a spoonful of her ice cream for himself and then walked to the living room and sat on the couch.

When Matthew was done with his ice cream, he placed his bowl in the sink and joined Andy on the couch. Andy was flipping through the channels and stopped at an old western movie that was on. "What are you watching?" Matthew asked him. "It's a cowboy movie with John Wayne in it" Andy said to Matthew. Matthew was watching the movie intensely and seemed to be interested in it. Sharon joined them later and noticed that Matthew had fallen asleep. He had moved closer to Andy during the movie and was now sleeping snuggled into Andy's left side. Andy glanced over at Sharon who was sitting at the other end of the couch. "Somebody's out" she whispered to him. He smiled back at her and was surprised Matthew had been so comfortable opening up to them. "He's had a rough week" Andy whispered back to Sharon and started to move. He gently stood up and got Matthew up as well. He was a little groggy. "Buddy, time for bed" Andy said to Matthew who nodded and started to walk with Andy towards the hallway. "Good night Sharon" Matthew said half asleep to her. "Good night Matthew" she said back to him and smiled as Andy walked passed her with Matthew. "I'll be right back" Andy said to Sharon and gave her a wink. "I'll be waiting" she said back to him.

Andy helped Matthew get ready for bed as he was still half asleep. "Where's Moxie?" Matthew said as he climbed into bed. "I'll make sure he comes in here to sleep" Andy said to Matthew as he tucked him in. "Okay" Matthew said sleepily. "Good night, Andy" Matthew said as he drifted off to sleep. "Good night, kiddo" Andy said to Matthew as he got up and walked out of the room. Andy walked back down the hallway to where he had left Sharon in the living room. She was still sitting on the couch watching the western movie that was still on. He came up behind her and motioned her to scoot over. She did and he slipped in on the couch behind her and she rested herself against his body. He wrapped his arms around her as she settled back. They finished watching the movie together.

"I think it would be better if we just had the moving company move all of our things at once, that way we get everything done together" Andy said to Sharon as he nibbled on her ear. "So, are you not going to the house tomorrow morning?" Sharon asked him as he lowered his lips to her neck. "I'll see how the morning goes" Andy answered her as she shifted in his arms and was now face to face with her. He leaned in and kissed Sharon with complete desire and she kissed him back, the two of them only stopping when they needed some air. Sharon hummed. "Let's go to bed, it's getting late" Sharon whispered to him as she started to get up from the couch. Andy was content staying on the couch with her in his arms but didn't want his back to hurt later on. Andy got up from the couch. "Let me just take Moxie out one more time and I will be right there" Andy said to her as he went to grab the dog's leash. Sharon grabbed Andy's hand as he moved away from her. "Be careful" Sharon said to him as she let go of his hand and headed down the hallway. Andy grabbed his gun and brought it with him, just in case. He put his jacket on and then took the dog out. 'This would be much easier at the new house' he thought to himself as he and the dog rode the elevator down to the main floor.

Both him and Moxie stepped outside and Moxie found a piece of grass to sniff at. Andy was looking around at their surroundings. He was a little precautious now when Croelick told him that he had seen them walking into the condo together last night. Some cars were driving fast down the street as Andy watched them go by. Moxie looked back at Andy when he was finished. "Ready to head back in?" Andy asked the dog and the dog went back towards the door that they came out of. They both went back inside and up to the 11th floor. When Andy got back with the dog to the door of the condo, there was a note taped to the door. Andy didn't like this one bit as he approached the door. He jiggled the door knob and was relieved to find it still locked. He looked around the floor to see if anyone else was there. He took the note off the door and unlocked the door and walked inside with the dog. He then double locked the door behind him. "Sharon?" he called out to her. "Yeah?" she called out to him from down the hallway. "Did you notice anything while I was gone" Andy asked her as he handed the note to her. "No, why?" Sharon said to him. She looked at the note. It said _Thank you so much Sharon. I truly enjoyed our time together. Till next time Andy_. _Bill_. "The little creep signed it" Andy said to her as he pulled out his phone and was beginning to call Provenza. As Sharon read the note, the hairs on the back of her neck started to stand up.

"This better be good, Flynn" Provenza answered his phone. "Croelick left a note on our door" Andy told him. "When?" Provenza asked. "A couple of minutes ago. I took the dog outside and when I came back, the note was taped to the front door" Andy said to him. "How do you know it is him?" Provenza asked Andy. "Because the creep signed the note" Andy answered. "Is the note threatening?" he asked him. "No, not threatening" Andy said as he looked over at Sharon. She was placing the note in a zip lock bag. "Alright, I call Mike and tell him and we will head over to you. Meanwhile I will call patrol and have them drive over there to take a look" Provenza said to him and then hung up. "Him and Mike are coming over here, and he is also sending patrol over to take a look around" Andy said to Sharon as she walked over to him. She was trembling as he placed his arms around her. "You okay?" he asked her. "No" she whispered back to him. Just knowing that Croelick was in her building gave her the creeps. "He does this, did it to the Chief when she dealt with him" Andy said to her as he held her.

A half hour later, Provenza and Mike arrived at their condo. Sharon had changed into something a little less revealing than what she had put on when Andy took the dog out. "The kid is sleeping so keep your voices down" Andy said as he let them both in. Sharon handed the note in the zip lock bag to Mike. "Here it is, it has mine and Andy's fingerprints on it" Sharon said to Mike. "I'll have forensics run an analysis to see if his fingerprints pop up" Mike said as he took the bag from her. "Patrol didn't see anything" Provenza informed them. Sharon nodded. "He's probably long gone by now" Provenza added. "Well, that's what we thought before when he left the Murder Room" Andy said to Provenza. "If you want, Captain, I can put a patrol car outside your building" Provenza said to Sharon. Sharon thought about it and agreed to that. "Try to get some rest Captain" Provenza said to her as he headed for the front door. Andy was walking them both out. Mike went out to the hallway first and waited for Provenza. "Hey, thanks for coming guys" Andy said to them as they were leaving. Provenza turned around before he headed out. "We'll let you know if we hear anything" he said to Andy. Andy nodded to him. "Be safe, Flynn" Provenza added and then Andy locked the door behind them.

He walked back to where Sharon was standing in the living room and wrapped his arms around her. "I texted Rusty to let him know about the patrol car outside" Sharon said to Andy, her voice muffled as her head was buried against his neck. "He's spending the night at Buzz's place" she added. He knew Sharon was not going to be sleeping well. "Do you want some tea?" he asked her. "No" she said. He held her in his arms in the living room. "I'm sorry" he quietly said to her. She lifted her head up and looked at him. "For what?" she asked him. "Everything. For wanting a drink earlier. For that psycho Croelick. I don't want you to be burdened by my mistakes" Andy told her as he looked back at her. He could get lost in her green eyes for hours. "You're not a burden, Andy. And I want to share everything with you, including psychos like Croelick" she said, the last part getting a chuckle from Andy. "We've had our fair share of them, recently" she added. "Yeah, we have" Andy agreed with her on that. He kept holding her in his arms and she let him.

After a couple of minutes, she led him down the hallway to their bedroom. Sharon held up outside of the other room and opened the door slightly to let Moxie into the room and also checked on Matthew. He was sound asleep. Andy waited for her to join him again and they made their way into their room and he closed the door behind them. They changed their clothes and got into bed. He climbed in first and then she snuggled closer to him. Andy laid on his back with his arms around Sharon and she rested her head on his chest. Both of them too wound up to go to sleep just yet. "I don't think he's sticking around, he's not that stupid" Sharon said to Andy. "I agree, but let's not talk about him anymore" Andy said back to her. Sharon settled in against his chest. He began rubbing his hands over her arm and back. She was relaxing now and found herself drifting off to sleep. Andy could tell Sharon was sleeping now because of the change in her breathing and her body was more relaxed. Andy was still rubbing her back in a circle pattern, but as he was doing this he felt himself not able to fall asleep.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** Thank you everyone for those great reviews! This chapter is going to be a long one. Enjoy!

Chapter 6

Andy's phone alerted him to a text message. He glanced over at the clock, trying not to disturb Sharon who was still sleeping in his arms. It was 1:15 and he wondered who would be texting him this early, or late for that matter. He slowly moved and reached for his phone to see. It was Provenza. The message said 'fingerprints are definitely Croelick's, patrol hasn't seen him'. He placed the phone down by his side and rubbed his eyes with his free hand. He then picked up the phone again and replied back to Provenza. 'thanks, get some sleep' he wrote back to him. 'You also' Provenza sent within a minute of his reply. Andy placed his phone back on the night stand. As he did this, Sharon moved a little bit but then settled down.

Andy knew that he needed to get some sleep soon in order to function in the morning. He had planned to bring some small items over to the new house so that the main move would only consist of the big items. They needed to call the moving company and set up a time and date for them. Perhaps they could do it before Thanksgiving, that way they could be in the new house for it. Although, it would be rushed but it would help bring out Sharon's sense of occasion if they hosted Thanksgiving this year. After all, they had a lot to be thankful for. Andy would have to run that by Sharon first to make sure that was alright with her. They could invite the whole team over he thought to himself.

Before Andy's mind could get carried away, Sharon stirred again and woke up this time. She glanced at the clock and in doing so, saw that Andy was wide awake. "Hey" she whispered to him. "Hi" Andy whispered back to her. She was now propped up by her elbows leaning close to Andy. "Have you slept at all?" Sharon asked him as she looked at him. "No. Provenza texted me, Croelick's fingerprints were on the note and it matches his handwriting" Andy said to her. She nodded and then scooted closer to him and placed her head back on his shoulder, her face into the crook of his neck. She started to draw lazy circles on his chest trying to get him to relax. He always enjoyed it when she did that to him. "You need to go to sleep" she said to him in her sleepy voice.

"What do you think about moving in before Thanksgiving and then having everyone over at the new house on Thanksgiving Day?" Andy said back to her. She stopped moving her hand on his chest and looked up at him with a quizzical look on her face. "Oh, you are serious about that?" she questioned him. He nodded. "Yes" he whispered to her. "We haven't even secured a moving company yet, Andy. How are we" she started to say as Andy placed a finger up to her mouth. "It will work, trust me" he said to her. She leaned down and kissed him. "This Monday you have your doctor's appointment for your month checkup" she reminded him. "I know" he said back to her, not forgetting that or their one month anniversary coming up. She laid her head back down on his shoulder and placed her right leg over his right leg. "Hmm, get some sleep" she said back to him as she pulled the covers over both of them. She brought her right hand underneath his t-shirt and placed it over his heart. She thought about all of the things she was thankful for in the past year. He closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep. "I can hear you thinking" he whispered to her. She smiled. "You have given me a lot to think about" she whispered back to him.

The sun was starting to rise in the morning over Los Angeles and its rays started to creep into their bedroom through the shades. Both Sharon and Andy began to stir at the same time and woke up. Sharon glanced over at the clock on the night stand and saw that it was 6:45. Andy moved with her as she started to get up and gently brought her back down to him. "Hmm, I like you right here" he said to her as he started to kiss her neck slowly making his way up to her ear. Sharon laughed as she was ticklish there. Andy knew that drove her crazy when he did that. "Shh, do you hear that?" Andy asked her as he stopped doing what he was doing. "The TV is on" she said to him. She started to get up and this time, Andy allowed her as he followed her out of bed. She threw on her cardigan sweater and he put his robe on and they left their room and headed down the hallway.

They saw Matthew sitting on the couch watching a cartoon and Moxie was sitting next to him. Sharon walked over to where he was sitting and sat down. "Good Morning" she said to him in a sweet voice. Matthew looked over at Sharon. "Good Morning" he said back to her as he was petting Moxie. Andy made his way into the kitchen and started to make breakfast for everyone. "Did I wake you?" Matthew asked innocently. "No, honey, we were up" Sharon said as she scooted over next to him as Moxie jumped off the couch and ran in the kitchen to join Andy. Moxie sat down next to Andy and watched him cook something on the stove. "Hey buddy, are you hungry" Andy asked the dog. Moxie wagged his tail. Andy then took Moxie's bowl and filled it with his food and he ate it.

Andy made breakfast and Sharon and Matthew met him at the kitchen table and they all ate together. Afterwards Sharon cleaned up the kitchen and Andy went to his laptop and looked up some moving companies. He found three companies that had excellent reviews online. He called each of them up and wrote down some information they gave him. "Hey, Sharon?" Andy said as he walked back in the kitchen. Sharon was cleaning up the kitchen from the breakfast that Andy had made. "I can do that" he said to her. "No, you cooked breakfast this morning, and I appreciate that" Sharon said to him. "Ok, well, I contacted three moving companies and here is their information" he said to her handing her the piece of paper he wrote on. Sharon looked it over. "This one looks like a reasonable price, and they are willing to move us this Wednesday?" Sharon asked him. "Yes, that way we can be all settled in for Thanksgiving" Andy said back to her. "Ok, let's do it" she said excited that they were setting a date to move.

Andy called back the moving company and had everything set up for them to move on Wednesday. They had both taken that day off of work anyways and if the team does catch a case, one of them could easily go in to the office if needed. "Matthew, did you want to come with me to the new house while I bring some things over there?" Andy asked Matthew who was sitting on the couch reading the book of snakes again. Matthew looked up at Andy and nodded yes to him. Andy walked back over to where Sharon was at and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Did you want to come with too?" he asked her as he kissed her neck. "I do only because you need to be supervised. I don't want you injuring yourself because you lifted heavy boxes that you shouldn't have" Sharon said to him and then unwrapped herself from his arms and headed down the hallway. Andy just looked at her as she left. He didn't need to be supervised. Oh well, he thought as he shrugged his shoulders.

After everyone was dressed and Rusty came back home to the condo, they packed up Andy and Sharon's car each with boxes of items that they had slowly packed away. Moxie came out with Andy and Matthew and the three of them headed out in his car. Sharon and Rusty followed them in Sharon's car. This gave her some time alone with Rusty as she really hadn't had a chance to talk with him like she used to do. "So, is everything okay?" she asked Rusty as she drove over to the new house. "Everything is good" he said to her. "How are your new classes going?" she asked him. "They are somewhat hard but I am managing through them" Rusty said to her as he looked out the window. "Have you heard from your mother recently?" Sharon asked as they came to the stop light. "No" he answered her as the light turned green.

They arrived at the new house and pulled up in the driveway. Andy's car was parked in front of them. "So when are we officially moving in here?" Rusty asked them as he got out of the car. "Andy called a moving company and they are moving everything to here on Wednesday" Sharon said to him. Rusty was sorry to see the condo go as that was his home when he first came to live with Sharon all those years ago. But he was happy that he would be getting his own apartment, even if it was above the garage, it still meant privacy for him. Rusty grabbed some boxes and headed inside the house. Andy told Matthew that he and Moxie could go play outside in the backyard and they did. Andy started to bring a box into the house and placed it down in the den. With both of the boys outside, Sharon took this opportunity to corner Andy in the den and slowly kissed him. "What was that for?" Andy asked her as they broke apart to catch their breaths. "Just because I am totally in love with you Andrew Flynn" she said to him and smiled.

They moved the rest of the boxes in the house and tried sorting out the contents, although they really couldn't do much since none of the furniture was there yet. Sharon sorted out some of the linens that she had already packed for the new house and placed them in the correct rooms. Matthew and Moxie came in the house from being out in the yard and met Andy in the kitchen area. "Does Moxie have muddy paws?" Andy asked Matthew as they came in. Matthew stopped and looked at Moxie. "I can't tell" Matthew said back to Andy. Andy walked over to them and took a look himself. He then grabbed an old towel and wiped off each of Moxie's paws just to be sure before letting him on the carpet areas of the house. He was all clean and Andy let him and Matthew run around the house. There was no furniture to knock over so this was the perfect time for them to be rambunctious Andy thought. That was until Matthew and Moxie ran into Sharon literally upstairs as they chased each other. "I'm so sorry Sharon, we didn't mean to run into you like that" Matthew said apologizing to Sharon right away. "Just be careful okay? And don't run like crazy" she said back to them as she made her way to the other rooms upstairs.

When she was done moving some things around upstairs she went past one of the rooms, and Matthew and Moxie were sitting down looking out the window. She stepped into the room that they were in. "Hi" she said to him as she got closer to them. "Hello" Matthew said as he looked out the window and he had his arm around Moxie. "Is this the room you were asking me about earlier?" Sharon asked him as she got down to his level. "Yes, I really like looking out these windows here" Matthew said as he pointed to the windows. "Oh I see, it is a nice view from here" Sharon said to Matthew. "We need to get you your own bed and some furniture to go with it" Sharon started to say. "Do I get to pick it out?" Matthew asked her. "You could if you wanted to" Sharon said. Matthew then had the biggest smile on his face. "Matthew, this afternoon we are going to go over to Andy's daughter's house for dinner and a visit. She has two boys that go to the same school as you, but they are in different grades there" Sharon said to Matthew. "Okay, can Moxie come with too?" Matthew asked her. She never really thought about that before. "Let me ask her if Moxie can come with first, okay?" Sharon said to him. He nodded and she pulled out her phone and texted Nicole.

There really wasn't anything else that they could do at the house that morning. Rusty had brought some of his boxes over to the apartment over the garage and that's where he was when Andy found him. "Hey Rusty, so do you like this set up here?" Andy asked him. "Yes, it's great and plus it gives me privacy. I think all of my belongings will fit here just perfectly" Rusty said to Andy as they both turned around to walk out the door and head back to the house.

Sharon heard back from Nicole a couple of minutes later. She was thankful that Nicole had said it was okay for them to bring Moxie with them when they came over later on today. They needed to buy some dog supplies for Moxie, like food, bedding, a crate, and some toys. Andy and Rusty walked back into the house. Sharon was making her way down the stairs and Matthew and Moxie were right behind her. "Are you guys ready to head back to the condo?" Sharon asked them. "Yes, there's really nothing else left to do here" Andy said to Sharon. "Well, we need to stop at a pet supplies store and pick up a few items for Moxie before we head back" Sharon said to Andy. "Sure" Andy said as he locked up the house and they all headed to the cars in the driveway. They drove separately to the closest pet supplies store and Andy held the leash of Moxie in the store while Sharon looked around at the different types of bedding and other essentials that they needed to get the dog. Matthew went looking with Sharon and Rusty. Almost a cart full later they were ready to check out. They had a dog crate, dog pillow, dog food and treats, and some dog toys.

"Do you think you have enough things there?" Andy laughed and asked Sharon as Rusty brought the cart out to the cars. "If I didn't know better, I think the dog has grown on to you" Andy whispered to her as they walked over to the car. Sharon smiled at him. "Perhaps" she said whispering back to him. Andy unlocked the car and Moxie jumped in the backseat. Rusty loaded the back with all of the dog items and Matthew helped with what he could. "Are you going to bring this back to the new house?" Sharon asked Andy. "I could if you want me to" Andy said back to her. "I was going to go to Target and buy some things for the new house, that way you can take the dog with you and I can take the boys shopping with me" Sharon said to him. Andy shrugged his shoulder. "That's fine. I'll see you back at the new house then" Andy said as he leaned in and gave her a kiss. Sharon, Rusty, and Matthew then all went in her car and they drove off. Andy looked at Moxie as he got in the car. "Well Moxie, it's just me and you for a while" Andy said to the dog as he drove back to the new house.

When Andy arrived at the new house, he had Moxie stay in the car as he unloaded everything. The crate wasn't as heavy as he thought it would be and when he unlocked the front door, he placed the crate in the hallway and then brought everything else in. He let Moxie out of the car and they both walked back into the house. He let Moxie off the leash and then decided where to put the dog's things. He brought the crate in to the kitchen and set it up there. Moxie just watched as Andy had put it together. "That's your safe place, Moxie" he said to the dog as he patted him on the head. Andy then went about putting the dog's bed in the den and opened some of the toys to let Moxie play with them in the house.

Sharon and the boys arrived at Target. She wanted to get new bathroom accessories because now their new home has four bathrooms. She went down that aisle and chose some items that she thought would fit nicely with the rooms. Matthew picked out a kid's motif and Sharon approved. Rusty picked one out that he thought would go nicely with the bathroom that would be his. They continued to shop around the store looking at other items for the new home. Sharon was in the home décor section of the store and saw a sign that said 'Home is wherever I'm with you'. She thought it was perfect for them and placed it in the cart. There were some other items that she liked and she took a picture of them and sent them to Andy to see what he thought.

Andy was outside with Moxie playing with a ball when his phone alerted to a text message from Sharon. He looked at the pictures that she had sent of the items. He knew Sharon was going to have a fun time shopping for new items to decorate the house with. He sent a text back to her. 'That looks fine. Perfect for the den' the message said. He looked at his watch, it was already passed noon. It was turning out to be a nice sunny day in LA and Andy walked over to where the pool was located in the yard. Moxie wanted to come with him but he told the dog to stay on the other side. Moxie waited for Andy on the other side of the fence. Andy looked at the pool and they needed to maintain it so he texted Sharon back and asked her if Target had any pool supplies.

"Rusty, can you go see if there are any pool supplies here, like chlorine and other items to maintain a pool" Sharon said to Rusty as they were walking around the store. "Sure" Rusty said as he went off in the direction of the sporting items. Sharon and Matthew were looking at new clothes and bed linens for him. A couple of minutes later, Rusty came back with the items Andy needed. Sharon then texted Andy back saying that they got the items and they would be checking out soon. 'Okay, want to have lunch here?' Andy texted her. 'Yes, we could pick it up on way home' Sharon texted to him. 'No, I'll get it' Andy said back. There was a little deli right down the street from their new house so Andy was going to go there to get some lunch.

20 minutes later, Sharon, Andy, and the boys were eating lunch at the island in the kitchen and Matthew was telling Andy about the new items for his room. He was really excited about it. Andy looked over at Sharon and smiled. He just hoped that Cynthia wasn't going to break them up with some news of a relative coming into the picture. Matthew seemed to be really fitting in with no problem now and he was also opening up to them. There was no going back for both Sharon and Andy as their hearts were fully open to this child. After lunch, Andy took the pool supplies out to the pool area and began to tinker with maintaining what needed to be done. After the pool was all set, he went back inside the house to find Sharon. Sharon had placed all of the new bathroom items in the appropriate rooms and Rusty took his to his apartment over the garage.

Matthew took Moxie up to his room and Andy had followed Sharon into the Master Bathroom. He came up from behind her and wrapped his arms around her. "We could sneak off into the closet for some privacy, the boys won't mind" Andy said to her as he began kissing her neck. "As much as I would like to do that, we need to get going if we are going to make it on time to Nicole's" Sharon said back to Andy as she smiled. Andy stopped kissing her neck and unwrapped himself from her. "I guess christening this room will just have to wait" Andy said back to her as they both walked out to the hallway. "Matthew, come on we need to get going now" Sharon said to Matthew as they walked passed his room. Matthew and Moxie came out of the room and followed them downstairs.

Rusty was still up at his place and got a text message from Andy. 'Meet us outside, ready to go' it said. Rusty replied back with an okay and headed out, locking the door behind him. With everything locked and everyone in the cars, they headed back over to the condo to get ready to go to Nicole's house.

When they arrived back at the condo, Sharon told Matthew that he needed to take a bath before they went out later on. Matthew had insisted that Moxie also needed to take a bath with him. As Sharon had gotten the bath ready for him, Matthew called Moxie and Moxie came barreling into the bathroom and jumped in the tub, splashing water all over the place. Sharon was not too happy about that. "Andy!" she called his name.

Andy heard Sharon call for him as he was in the closet looking for something. He came rushing out to see what Sharon needed. "Yes?" The sight before his eyes made him laugh. Sharon was all wet from the water being splashed at her when Moxie jumped in the tub. Moxie and Matthew were now sitting in the tub together looking back at Andy when he came in the room. "This is not funny" Sharon said to Andy when he showed up there. "I'll watch them honey, you go change your clothes" Andy said as she stood there, getting angry. She then retreated back to their bedroom to change her now wet clothes into some dry ones. Andy looked back at Matthew and at Moxie. "Not a good move boys" he said to them as he started to wipe up the excess water that was on the floor. Matthew looked back at Andy and lowered his head. "Sorry" he said to Andy.

Matthew dried himself off with a towel that Andy had given him while Andy dried off Moxie. Matthew put on his new clothes that they had bought him and ran into the other bedroom with Moxie following him. Andy walked back into their bedroom to see where Sharon was at. She was standing in the closet with the door half closed as she was changing her clothes. Andy walked up to the closet door and knocked on it, peaking his head in. She was wearing a blue bra and matching panties as she was trying to get dressed. Those colors drove him crazy. She threw a shirt over her bra and a sweater cardigan over that. Andy made his way into the closet with her and gave her a kiss. "The boys apologize for getting you wet earlier" he said to her. She smiled back at him and kissed him again. "It was a little funny" Sharon admitted to him and then pulled some jeans on. Andy began running his hands over her clothes and then slipped one hand underneath her shirt and began caressing her side. He pulled her in for another kiss. He couldn't help it, she drove him crazy.

Sharon made her way out of their bedroom and into the living room area a few minutes later. She saw Rusty and Matthew on the couch. Matthew was coloring in one of his coloring books while Rusty was reading a magazine. She made her way towards the kitchen and saw Moxie laying down on the floor. Andy got himself dressed after practically making out with Sharon inside their closet. He wore a nice pair of jeans, button down shirt, and a leather jacket. He made his way out to the living room. "Are you ready to go?" he asked. Rusty and Matthew both got up from the couch and Matthew placed Moxie's leash on the dog. Rusty stood by the door and waited for the rest of the group. Sharon grabbed her leather jacket and was ready to go. Andy grabbed the leash from Matthew and they all headed out down to the car.

They arrived at Nicole and Dean's house and as they pulled up, the boys were playing out in front of the house. They were excited to see everyone. Matthew was a little shy getting out of the vehicle and stayed by Sharon's side as they walked up to the house. Nicole was outside with her boys and greeted everybody. She kissed her dad on the cheek and gave Sharon a hug. "I'm so glad you guys were able to make it" Nicole said to her as she turned towards Matthew. Nicole then knelt down. "Hi Matthew, I'm Nicole" she said to Matthew. "Hi" Matthew said in a quiet voice. "I understand that you go to the same school as my boys do" Nicole said to him. Matthew nodded back at her. The boys were now petting Moxie and Moxie was wagging his tail. "Hi Rusty!" the boys said to Rusty as he came up the sidewalk towards the house. "Hi guys" Rusty said back to them as they rushed at him. "Dean is in the backyard getting the grill ready" Nicole said to her dad as they all went inside the house.

Matthew was still close to Sharon's side as they made their way through the house and into the backyard. The yard was fenced in so Andy let Moxie off the leash and Moxie ran around with the boys who were chasing him. Sharon, Nicole, and Matthew then joined them outside. Sharon turned to Matthew. "Why don't you go run with them, it's okay Matthew" Sharon said encouraging Matthew to go play with them. Matthew hesitated for a second and then ran off to join in the chase. "How are you guys doing?" Nicole asked Sharon as the two of them sat down on the chairs outside. "Things have been okay with Matthew. He's really enjoying school and talks about all of the things that he has learned so far. I think he is going to be okay" Sharon said to Nicole. "That's good to hear" Nicole said back to her.

"Dean" "Andy" the men said to each other as they shook their hands. "Glad you guys were able to come over. Nicole was talking about how she wanted to meet Matthew and the boys were excited too" Dean said to Andy as he began grilling. "How has it been with an eight year old?" Dean asked Andy. Andy looked at him and then looked at the boys playing. "It's been an adjustment, but the kid needed someone and I'm just glad we are able to help him" Andy said to Dean. "My only concern is that the social worker is going to find a relative that wants him. If that happens I know Sharon will be heartbroken. She's grown attached to him" Andy said as Dean was cooking. "I know what you mean" he said back to Andy.

"Dad said you guys had just solved an arson/murder case yesterday" Nicole said to Sharon as she offered her step-mom a drink. "Yes, we did" she said to Nicole as she looked back to where Andy was standing with Dean. "Bad case?" Nicole asked her as she sat back down. "An old person from your father's past came back into the picture, which brought up all kinds of things. But we are all good, solved the case and now have the weekend off" Sharon said to Nicole as she sipped her water. The boys enjoyed playing with the dog and Matthew was having a good time.

When Dean was done grilling, they all sat around the dining room table and ate dinner. After dinner, the adults sat around and talked while the kids ran off into their room, Moxie following them, and played with their toys. Sharon was happy to see how well Matthew was getting along with Dean and Nicole's boys. Nicole asked Rusty about his classes that he was taking at college.

"Sharon, Dad, if you guys ever need a babysitter or someone to pick up Matthew from school, we would be happy to do so" Nicole said to both Sharon and Andy. "Oh, thank you guys" Andy said. "We will certainly keep that in mind" Sharon said back to Nicole. It was getting late and the boys were still playing. Sharon turned to Andy who had stood up from where he was sitting. "Could you go get Matthew and tell him we are getting ready to go" Sharon asked Andy. "Sure honey" Andy said back to her and made his way to the room that had the boys in it.

"When are you moving to the new house?" Nicole asked Sharon. As Sharon got up she answered Nicole. "Your father was able to book movers this Wednesday so we should be all settled in by Thanksgiving" Sharon said to her. "Where are you guys going for Thanksgiving this year?" Sharon asked her as she put on her leather jacket. "Oh, we were just going to stay local this year, my mother is having Charlie and his new girlfriend over for dinner. She invited us too but I didn't know what plans we had" Nicole said to Sharon as they waited for Andy to get Matthew and Moxie.

Andy opened the door to the room and saw the three boys playing with their Star Wars figures and having battles with them. Moxie was laying down watching them as well. "Ok boys, Matthew needs to go home now" Andy said to them. "Awh, so soon Grandpa?" they said. "Maybe we could set up another play date and either Matthew could come over again, or you guys could come over to the new house" Andy suggested to them as Matthew got up and walked over to Andy. Moxie got up and followed them out of the room and back to where everyone was gathered. "Mom, can we set up a playdate with Matthew again?" the boys asked Nicole. "Sure, we could do that" Nicole said to them and then walked to the front door. Sharon, Rusty, Matthew, Andy and Moxie all went to the front door. Andy had stopped and gave Nicole a kiss on her cheek. "Good night sweetheart, thank you for dinner" Andy said to her. He then shook Dean's hand and turned around and waited for Sharon. Sharon gave Nicole a hug. "Thanks again Nicole, Dean" Sharon said to them as she walked towards Andy and Moxie. Matthew ran ahead to the car and Rusty was following him.

They got in the car and headed to the condo. Matthew was talking about all the toys he had played with over there. Sharon was glad that he had such a good time tonight. She was a little worried because this was the first time that Matthew was meeting people he didn't know. They arrived at the condo after a short drive and Andy pulled into the parking spot. They got out of the car and headed towards the elevator. "When we get upstairs, you are going straight to bed" Sharon said to Matthew as he yawned. "Okay" he said as he tried to keep his eyes open. The doors opened to their floor and Andy walked ahead with Moxie and opened the door to the condo.

Matthew got ready for bed and Moxie followed him into the room. Rusty went out to the balcony to go talk to Gus on his phone. Sharon followed Matthew down the hall to make sure he was getting ready for bed. Andy went in to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. Sharon tucked Matthew in bed and closed the door behind her. She then made her way to where Andy was in the kitchen. "You know, Nicole was telling me that they really don't have any plans for Thanksgiving" Sharon said to him as she walked up to him and laid her head on his shoulder. They just stood there, Andy holding her in his arms. "We could have something small at the new house" Andy said to her. Sharon smiled into his shoulder and then lifted her head to look at him. She was tired and she could tell that Andy was also tired. "Let's go to bed" Sharon said to him. Andy let go of her and she walked over to the balcony where Rusty was at. She opened the sliding glass door and peeked her head out. "We are heading to bed, Rusty" she said to him. "Okay" Rusty said back to her and continued to talk on the phone with Gus. Sharon walked back to Andy and they both headed down the hallway into their bedroom.

Andy got in bed and waited for Sharon to come out of the bathroom. Sharon climbed in bed and Andy scooted behind her and pulled her in, close to his body. Her back was against his chest. "Good night Andy" she whispered to him. "Good night, my love" Andy whispered to Sharon and they drifted off to sleep.

A couple of hours later, Sharon woke up to a noise she couldn't quite pinpoint. She turned over to Andy and gently woke him up. "Do you hear that noise?" she asked him. Andy listened for a minute. "Yes" he said to her as he got up and out of bed. She did the same thing. Andy got dressed and threw some shoes on. Sharon got dressed as well. They both grabbed their guns. "What is it and where is it coming from?" Sharon asked him. He opened the door and entered the hallway. The noise was getting louder as he made his way to the front door. "It's the smoke alarm in the building" Andy said as he walked over to wake up Rusty, who was sleeping on the couch. "Hey, Rusty, we got to get out, now" Andy said as he woke Rusty up. Sharon went to get Matthew out of bed. Andy grabbed the dog's leash and got Moxie out with the rest of them. Sharon made sure she had her purse and Andy made sure he had his wallet and keys. All five of them headed out into the hallway. Andy locked the door and they made their way to the staircase. A lot of other people were in the hallway doing the same thing. Andy made sure that Sharon, Matthew, and Rusty were in front of him going down the flights of stairs. He was behind them with the dog. They made their way to the ground floor and stepped outside.

They could see smoke coming from the first floor area and also from the parking garage. The fire department was arriving on the scene and they made their way to a safe distance and stood together. Sharon looked at Andy and he looked back at her. Funny how they had just closed the arson case and now there was smoke in the condo building. All of the other residents were filing out onto the sidewalk. The fire was put out easily by the fire department and Sharon had stopped the incident commander and flashed her badge to him. "Where was the fire located at?" Sharon asked him. He looked at her badge and gave her the courtesy. "Fire was located in the dumpster in the parking garage. Looks like it was accidental right now, Captain" he said to her and then walked away to the fire trucks.

Sharon walked back to Andy and the boys and told Andy what the commander had told her. "Could it be a coincidence?" Andy asked Sharon. She knew what he was getting at. Did Croelick have anything to do with this? She didn't want to think about Croelick again. They waited for the all clear to return back in to the condo building, which took about twenty more minutes. They headed back upstairs with the rest of the residents. Andy unlocked the front door and Matthew and Rusty slowly walked inside with Sharon coming in behind them. It was well after 2 o'clock in the morning now. Rusty flopped back down on the couch and went to sleep. Matthew went to Rusty's room and climbed back into bed. Moxie followed him and jumped on the bed. Sharon closed the door and followed Andy into their bedroom. They placed their guns in the lockbox in their closet and took off their clothes and put their pajamas back on. They both then climbed back into bed and Andy held Sharon close to him. "He would be stupid if he did that" Sharon said to Andy as she settled in his arms. "I wouldn't put it past him, but who knows, right?" Andy said to Sharon. "Hmm" Sharon said to him. "Let's try to get some sleep" Andy said to her and she closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep but both of them couldn't.

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** Happy Thanksgiving everyone who celebrates! Here is the latest chapter. Enjoy and thank you all for reading and writing a review.

Chapter 7

As they both lie awake in bed together, Sharon reaches for her phone. "What are you doing?" Andy whispered to her. "I know it's 2 in the morning but we need to let Provenza know what happened" Sharon whispered back to him as she fully sat up in bed. Andy groaned and got up as well. He rubbed his hand over his face. "And I know that if I call him, he will answer right away" Sharon added as she looked at Andy. The phone rang twice before Provenza answered it. "Captain, is everything okay?" Provenza said to her. "Lieutenant, we have had an interesting night over here at the condo" Sharon began to tell Provenza what happened with the smoke alarm and fire in the dumpster.

"Ye gods, is everyone okay over there?" Provenza asked Sharon after listening to her explain what had happened. "Yes, we are all okay here" Sharon said back to him. "Wait, why are you calling instead of Flynn? Did something happen to him?" Provenza asked her. "No, he's fine. I called you because I knew you would answer me" Sharon said to him. He knew her assumption was correct, that's why he answered when he saw the caller id on his phone. "Do you think it's Croelick?" Provenza asked her. "He'd be stupid to do that, wouldn't you think Lieutenant?" Sharon said to him. "Especially because he would know we would be on him, right?" Sharon added and asked Provenza. "I'll send a patrol car over there again now, and we can regroup just the three of us in the morning if you'd like, Captain" Provenza said to her. "Thank you Lieutenant" she said to him. "Try to get some rest, Captain" Provenza said and then hung up.

While Sharon was on the phone with Provenza, Andy had pulled out his laptop and started conducting some searches of his own. "What are you doing?" Sharon said to Andy as she hung up her phone and placed it on the night stand again. "I'm trying to determine how Croelick knows about our kids" he said to her as he was typing on the laptop. "We know he knows about Matthew as he told us that he saw the three of us walking into this building" Andy added as Sharon listened to him. "I don't believe I ever told him about my children when I arrested him all those years ago" Andy said as he was pulling something up on his laptop to show Sharon. "Look at this" Andy pointed out to Sharon as he turned his laptop to show her. "What am I looking at and how did you get that on your laptop?" Sharon said to Andy. "Mike had installed a program that feeds into our electronic database to view video files of our individuals we interview" Andy started to explain to Sharon. Sharon looked at Andy and she was surprised by that. "What? Mike installed this before I had my blood clot surgery last year" Andy said to her. She moved closer to him. "That way, when I was home with Patrice and you were at work, I could sort of keep an eye on you, you know, to make sure you were okay" Andy said to her. "That's a little creepy, but thoughtful none the less" Sharon said to him as she kissed him on the cheek.

When he turned his laptop around, it showed the video of Croelick in their conference room after they had left to join Buzz in electronics. Andy had paused it on the still picture of Croelick standing up looking through the glass windows into Sharon's office. "Dammit" she cursed under her breath. "How could I have been stupid not to close those blinds in my office" Sharon said to Andy. Sharon was sure that Croelick could see the family photos of Sharon's kids on her desk and on her cabinet. Andy pressed play and they saw Croelick go back and sit down at the table and pull out his phone. "Can you see what he is doing on the phone?" Sharon asked Andy. Andy tried to blowup the picture and see if they could see anything he was doing on his phone. "I can only get one angle of the picture on the laptop" Andy said to her.

"Okay, so he might of seen the children's pictures on your desk but that still doesn't explain his comment to me in the room before you joined us" Andy said to her as he couldn't see what Croelick was typing on his cell phone. "He could deduce that I have children by seeing their pictures on my desk, I'll give him that, but how does he know about your children and ex-wife?" Sharon said to him. She shook her head. "I am not thinking straight" she said to him. Andy closed his laptop and placed it on the night stand. "Come here" he said to Sharon as he sat back against the headboard of their bed and gestured for Sharon to follow him. She moved to him and leaned against his body as he wrapped his arms around her. "Close your eyes, and get some sleep. We will look into this in the morning" Andy whispered to her as he soothingly rubbed her arms with his hands. Sharon settled in and within a minute, she was relaxing and drifting off to sleep. Andy felt himself nodding off and finally gave in to some sleep.

Andy heard the door to their bedroom open slightly and then close. He opened his eyes and saw Matthew standing on his side of the bed. "Andy?" Matthew whispered. Andy sat up a little bit without disturbing Sharon who was still sleeping against him. "What is it buddy?" Andy whispered back to him. He looked at Matthew's face and saw that he had been crying. "I had a bad dream" Matthew said back to Andy. "What happened?" Andy asked him. "There was a fire" Matthew said back to him. Andy gently woke Sharon up. "Hmm?" she said still groggy. "Matthew had a bad dream, can you move over a little bit" Andy said to her in a low voice. Sharon moved over, but maintained her sleeping position on Andy's side. "Come up here Matthew" Andy said and Matthew climbed up onto their bed. Matthew slid into Andy's other side and settled down. He fell asleep almost instantly. Andy heard Moxie shake his collar and settle down on the floor next to their bed.

The sun rose again and started to creep its way into their bedroom. Sharon started to stir and when she woke up, the sight before her eyes brought a smile to her face. Andy was laying on his back and Matthew was snuggled up into his right side, sleeping. She remembered Andy saying something about Matthew having a bad dream during the night. Sharon lightly rubbed Andy's chest with her hand and he opened his eyes. She smiled at him and he smiled back at her. "Good morning" she said to him. "Morning beautiful" he said back to her as he gently caressed her face with his free hand. Andy then looked down at Matthew sleeping, clinging onto Andy's shirt. "He's out like a light" she said to him in a quiet voice. Andy settled his head back against his pillow as he gently caressed Sharon's right arm as she was sitting beside him. She leaned down and kissed him, then she got up to get dressed.

Andy gently pried his shirt from Matthew's grip and moved out of the bed. Moxie got up and greeted Andy as he came around the bed. Andy stretched his back and tried to work out the kinks that had formed overnight. Moxie shook his head and also stretched. "Do you need to go out?" Andy asked the dog. Moxie came over to him and was wagging his tail. "I'd take that as a yes" Andy said to himself. Andy threw on a sweatshirt over his shirt and put some shoes on before taking Moxie outside. Sharon came out of the bathroom and saw Matthew still sleeping on their bed. Andy and the dog were no longer there. She knew he must have taken the dog outside. Sharon decided to let Matthew sleep a little longer and headed into the hallway towards the kitchen. Rusty was already awake on the couch, eating a bowl of cereal. "Morning Rusty" she said to him as she passed him as she headed in the kitchen. "Morning" he said with his mouthful of cereal.

Andy took Moxie outside the condo and the dog was sniffing along the sidewalk and parts of the grass. Andy watched Moxie do this and then looked up at the surroundings. He saw the patrol car on the other side of the street and waved to them. The officers in the car waved back. Moxie was done and they headed back inside the building. Andy opened the front door to the condo and Moxie ran inside, heading for the kitchen. Andy followed Moxie, saw Rusty was up and eating breakfast on the couch. As he made his way in to the kitchen, he saw Sharon was there leaning against the counter. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a kiss on her cheek. "Matthew is still sleeping" she said to him as she was preparing breakfast. "What are you making?" he inquired as he put Moxie's food in the bowl and placed it on the floor for the dog to eat. "Low-fat cinnamon raisin French toast" she said to him as she smiled. "I saw a recipe for this the other day and wanted to try it, besides it is low-fat so I thought it would be good for your diet as well" Sharon said to him as she started cooking the food.

He smirked back at her, even though he hated being on this new diet, he has lost some weight and was feeling pretty good now. "I'm going to go get dressed now" he said to her as he made his way back down the hallway. He walked in their bedroom and Matthew was still sleeping. Andy got dressed and by the time he was done, Matthew was waking up. At first he didn't know where he was at but then realized he was in Andy and Sharon's bedroom. "Morning kiddo" Andy said as Matthew climbed out of bed. Andy was now in the bathroom, getting ready to shave when Matthew joined him. Matthew looked at Andy as he started to put shaving cream on his face. Andy looked over at Matthew. "What are you doing?" Matthew asked him. "I'm shaving my face so that it looks clean and smooth for Sharon" Andy said. Matthew looked at him with a weird look on his face. Andy wiped the shaving cream off to show him. He bent over so that Matthew could get a closer look. "Do you see all this stubble on my face?" Andy said to him. Matthew nodded. "Well, I shave it off so that it's smoother to touch. But, sometimes I keep it because Sharon likes it" Andy said to Matthew, hoping he understood.

Matthew watched Andy begin to shave again. "Does that hurt?" Matthew asked him. "No, it doesn't as long as you are gentle with the razor" Andy said as he continued shaving. He looked back at Matthew. "Why don't you go and get dressed. Sharon is making breakfast" Andy said to Matthew and Matthew got up and went in Rusty's room to change his clothes. After Andy was all done he went in Rusty's room to see if Matthew needed help but he was glad to see that the kid was already dressed, he was just putting his pile of clothes in the laundry basket that was in the room. "Come on, let's go eat" Andy said as they both headed towards the kitchen.

Sharon, Andy, and Matthew all ate breakfast at the table. Rusty got himself ready and said he was meeting Gus later that morning. Provenza had texted Andy's phone asking him what time would be good for them to go over a few things regarding the possibility of Croelick still hanging around. "Provenza wants to know what time is good for you" Andy said to Sharon. "And he is also bringing Patrice with him. She said she could keep an eye on Matthew as we discuss business" Andy added. "Tell him in an hour is fine. Where are we meeting?" Sharon said back to Andy. "They are going to come here" Andy told her as she started to clear the table. He got up and helped her clean up the kitchen as Matthew got up and went over to the living room to play with Moxie.

An hour later, Provenza and Patrice came over. This was the first time Patrice was meeting Matthew. "Hello Matthew" Patrice said to him as she walked in the living room. Matthew was shy. Sharon explained to Matthew who Patrice was. "This is Lieutenant Provenza's wife" Sharon said to Matthew. He walked over to Patrice. "Hi" he said in a quiet voice. "What book are you reading there?" Patrice asked Matthew as she saw him holding a book. "It's about lizards" Matthew said. "Oh, those are my favorite" Patrice said to Matthew as she looked back at Sharon. Sharon smiled at Patrice. "Why don't we go in the kitchen and you can tell me all about lizards" she said to Matthew and Matthew went with Patrice. Sharon then turned her attention to her two Lieutenants who were sitting in the living room. Moxie came up to Provenza and wanted him to pet him. "I'm not a dog person" Provenza told Moxie as he looked at him. Moxie looked at Andy. "It's okay" Andy said to Moxie as he petted him as he sat next to Andy.

"Is patrol still sitting out there?" Andy asked Provenza. "No, I told them they could go back to the precinct" Provenza said to Andy. Sharon joined them in the living room. "So do we know if Croelick went back to Fresno?" she asked Provenza. "No Captain, we don't. I called Fresno police to have them drive by his place and let me know if they see him there, but they don't have the manpower to conduct a well-being check right now" Provenza said to Sharon. "We sort of found out how he knew about Sharon's kids, but we still don't know how he knew about mine" Andy said to Provenza as he pulled out his laptop and showed him the video. "I don't think he is a threat to our children, Lieutenant but it is still creepy just thinking about it and considering last night's smoke and fire in the dumpster here" Sharon said to Provenza. "Well Captain, the fire department ruled it as an accident. Do you want us to do our own investigation, off the record, of course?" Provenza asked. Sharon looked at Andy and then back at Provenza.

"By the book, but off the record, Lieutenant" Sharon said to Provenza as she got up to see how Matthew and Patrice were doing in the kitchen. She walked over to the table where they sat and joined the two. Matthew was telling Patrice all about lizards and how some lizards can change colors while others can regrow tails. Patrice looked at Sharon as she sat down. "Wow, that is very interesting Matthew. I did not know that about lizards" Patrice said to him. "Did you know that the largest lizard is the komodo dragon?" he said to Sharon as he pointed at the picture and showed her. "No, I did not know that Matthew" Sharon said as she smiled at him.

Provenza looked at Andy as he was checking his laptop. "We are going to need that report from the fire department" Provenza said to him. "Yeah, and how are we going to get that from them?" Andy said. "It's not like we can just look it up ourselves" Andy added. "Hold on, we can look it up" Provenza said as he pulled out his phone and started to dial a number. "Who are you calling?" Andy asked him. "Mike, it's Provenza. No we didn't catch a case, officially. I need to ask you something" Provenza said on the phone as he looked back at Andy.

About twenty minutes later, Mike entered the condo and carried a bag of computer equipment with him. Andy had answered the door and showed him to where he and Provenza were sitting. Sharon looked back from where she was in the kitchen with Patrice and Matthew and wondered why all of a sudden Mike was here. She got up and walked over to where they were in the living room. "Hello Mike" Sharon said to him. "Hi, Captain" Mike said hesitantly as he was setting up the computer equipment. Sharon walked over to where Andy was sitting and whispered in his ear. "What's going on sweetie?" she asked him. "Mike is just helping us, unofficially, find some information" Andy said to her. She looked at him with a worried look on her face. She looked at Mike who was talking with Provenza while setting something up. "Okay" she said to Andy as she went back to the kitchen.

Mike had brought over some equipment to hack into the Los Angeles Fire Department's intranet which is where all of the fire reports were kept. "Are you sure this is legal?" Andy whispered over at the both of them. "We are not going to get caught" Mike said to him. Andy didn't want to know why Mike had this computer equipment with him nor did he want to know why Provenza knew Mike's hacking abilities. The less he knew the better his chances were when Sharon started asking questions, which he knew she would. "Okay, let's see what we can see here, shall we" Mike said as he started to navigate through the system. "Here is the report from the dumpster fire last night. I will print it out" Mike said and he entered some information on the keyboard and about a minute later, the report printed from the printer that Sharon had at her desk. "See, piece of cake" Mike said to Provenza and Andy as he handed the report to them. Mike then disconnected everything.

Andy looked over the report first and then handed it to Provenza. "It says here the bin was melted around the middle" Andy said to them as he kept reading. "There was minor damage to the insulation above the dumpster" Provenza stated to them. "Why was the dumpster melted around the middle?" Mike asked the two of them. "There had to be some sort of starter concentrated in the middle of the dumpster" Mike added to the investigation. "Yeah, but what, there is nothing else listed in this report" Andy said to Mike. Mike shrugged his shoulders. "We could go down there ourselves and have a look around" he said to Provenza and Andy as he held up his evidence bag he always carries around with him.

"We'll be back" Andy said out loud as they were headed for the front door. "Wait, where are you guys going?" Sharon asked them as she followed them to the door. "You said you wanted us to investigate off the record, right?" Andy asked her. She looked at him and knew they were up to something. "Right" she said to him and he winked back at her. The three of them headed downstairs to the dumpster, leaving Sharon wondering what her three Lieutenants were getting in to. She shook her head as the door closed behind them and headed back in the kitchen.

"So tell me about your new house, when are you moving?" Patrice said to Sharon as she came back and sat down with them. "It's very lovely, I can show you some pictures of it on my phone. We move this Wednesday" Sharon said to Patrice as she showed her the pictures of their house. "Oh my goodness! Sharon this home is gorgeous" Patrice said as she flipped through the pictures. "That entranceway, wow!" she added. "There's a pool too!" Matthew said to her as he was coloring in his book. "That's great, do you know how to swim Matthew?" Patrice asked him. "Um, no" he said shaking his head. "Hmm, well we will have to teach you then" Sharon said to Matthew smiling at him.

Andy, Provenza, and Mike made their way down to where the dumpster was located and saw the mess that the fire created. "Yep, I would say this is definitely melted in the middle" Mike said as he pointed to the area he was looking at. Mike then peeked over the side of the dumpster for any sort of clues. Andy was looking around the outside of the dumpster for any clues that the fire department missed. He then looked up at the ceiling to see if there were any cameras in the area. All of the times that he has been at Sharon's condo, he has never been to the area that held the dumpster. He walked back around to join Provenza and Mike. "There's no cameras in the area, well that I can tell at least" Andy said to them. Mike was holding onto the dumpster with one hand, wanting to get an even closer look. "Hey, can one of you help me here?" Mike said to Andy and Provenza. They both looked at each other and Provenza took a step back. Andy looked back at him and stepped towards Mike. "What do you need?" Andy asked Mike as he came up next to him. "There's some residue located on the inside of the dumpster where the fire was. I need to get some samples of that and it should tell us how the fire was started" Mike said to Andy.

"Ah, be careful Mike" Provenza said to Mike as he was climbing into the dumpster with the help of Andy. Mike was able to scrape some of the residue off and placed it in a sample jar. "I can have the lab run this and we should know a lot tomorrow" Mike said as he climbed out of the dumpster. "There's no cameras around here?" Mike asked. "I took a look around, I didn't see any" Andy said to him. Just then a janitor came walking by the gentlemen. "Hey, what are you doing there?" the janitor questioned them. "Official police business sir, nothing to worry about" Provenza said to him and flashed him his LAPD badge. The janitor went about his business. Andy smacked Provenza on the shoulder. "What are you doing, this is not official police business" Andy said to Provenza. "Relax Flynn, he's not going to tell anybody anyways so it does not matter" Provenza said back to Andy.

"Do you think we could get fingerprints off of this dumpster?" Andy asked Mike. "I'm sure we could, the question is how many fingerprints can we get" Mike said as he pulled out his fingerprint dusting kit from his bag. After he was done collecting the fingerprints, the three of them headed back upstairs. Andy opened the front door to the condo and they made their way back inside to the living room. Sharon and Patrice were still talking and drinking hot tea now and Matthew was watching a cartoon on the TV. Sharon heard them come back in and asked Matthew to turn the TV off so they could continue to work in the living room area. Matthew did and he went back to where Sharon and Patrice were, Moxie following him there.

Mike gathered his things back up and placed them all in his duffle bag that he brought with. "I'll see you guys tomorrow at work" Mike said as he started to head out the door. "See you tomorrow, Captain" Mike said and then he left. Andy winced when he came back to the couch and sat down. Provenza saw it. "Are you okay?" Provenza asked him as he saw his friend hold his side. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just my rib hurts on this side every once in a while, since that bullet grazed my vest" Andy said as he looked back at Provenza. "Does the Captain know about this?" he said in a low voice. Andy looked at him and shook his head no. "When are you going to learn?" Provenza said in a lower voice as to not attract attention from the ladies in the kitchen. "I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, and Sharon's coming with me so, I'll tell her then" Andy said. Provenza just shook his head.

Sharon walked over to the two sitting on the couch. "So, do I have to ask or is everything okay?" she said to them as they looked at each other. "Everything is fine" Andy said with a smile. Sharon knew something was up but decided to ask Andy later. Patrice walked passed Sharon. "Are you all set to go Louie?" Patrice asked him. "Oh, um yes Patrice" Provenza said as he stood up and went around the couch to join her. "Louie is taking me shopping after we leave here" Patrice said to Sharon as she looked back at Provenza. "Have fun shopping!" Sharon said to Patrice and walked the two of them to the door. "Thanks for coming over Lieutenant" Sharon said to Provenza. Andy stood up and joined them at the door. "Good luck tomorrow morning" Provenza said to Andy and shook his hand. Patrice and Provenza then exited their condo and headed to their car.

Andy closed the door and walked back to the living room with Sharon. "Why was he saying good luck to you?" Sharon inquired as she sat down on the couch. Andy joined her there. "Oh, well, because of my doctor's appointment tomorrow morning" Andy said to her as he carefully moved his arm around her. Matthew came over to them sitting on the couch. "Matthew, would you like to go and do something this afternoon?" Sharon asked him. "Like what?" Matthew asked her. "We could go to the park" Sharon suggested. "Can Moxie come with us?" Matthew asked them. "Sure buddy" Andy said as he got up from the couch. He hesitated before standing all the way up. Sharon saw this and was at his side in seconds. "Are you okay?" Sharon asked him. "I'm fine" Andy said in a hushed tone. Sharon looked at him with concern on her face. Andy walked away from Sharon and headed towards the kitchen to pick up Moxie's leash. Sharon shook her head at him and proceeded to get Matthew ready to go to the park.

Minutes later, they arrive at the park and Sharon opens Matthew's door for him and he gets out of the car. He holds Sharon's hand as they make their way towards a playground. She looks back at Andy who has the dog on the leash and is walking towards them. "Where are you going?" she asked Andy as he walked passed her and Matthew. "I was just going to walk Moxie around the park" Andy said to her. "If Matthew wants to play in the playground, you can stay here with him. I'll be back in twenty minutes or so" Andy added. Sharon looked back at him. "No, you are staying in my sites, Andy, unless you want to tell me what's bothering you" Sharon said as she looked at him. "Alright" Andy said as he took her hand in his and they went to go sit on a bench to watch Matthew play. Moxie walked with them and also sat down.

"Promise me you won't get mad" Andy started to say to Sharon as they sat down. "I don't like the sound of that" Sharon said to him. "It's not bad. Okay, ever since that bullet grazed my vest, my rib in that area has been hurting every once in a while" he said to her. Sharon's face showed concern right away. "Does it hurt you right now?" Sharon asked him. "No, it comes and goes" Andy said to her. "Andy, didn't you think with all of your health problems you should have told me about this when it happened?" Sharon said to him. "It didn't hurt until a couple of days later, and it went away" Andy said to her. Sharon looked to see where Matthew was playing and then looked back at Andy. "Are you mad?" he asked her. "Why do you keep hiding your health problems from me?" Sharon asked him. Her face looked completely hurt and Andy hated that. "Because I didn't think anything of it and it didn't really bother me until this morning when I helped Mike climb into the dumpster" Andy said to her. Sharon took a deep breath. "You will be telling the doctor tomorrow morning" Sharon said to him and Andy nodded. "And I will be going with you" Sharon added and Andy nodded to that too.

Matthew spent two hours playing at the park when Sharon looked at her watch. It was getting late and they needed to figure out what they were doing for dinner. It was just going to be the three of them since Rusty was still hanging out with Gus. Sharon walked over to get Matthew as Andy stood up from the bench. He looked to see Sharon speak with Matthew and then he glanced around the park at everyone else. There were people tossing the Frisbee around and others having a good time. The playground was packed with kids playing. He then looked over to their left and he saw Croelick standing off in the distance. He looked over to where Sharon was at and then looked back and Croelick was still standing there. Sharon came up to Andy with Matthew by her side. "Croelick is here watching us" he whispered to her. Sharon eyes panicked as she looked around them. As Andy was looking back at where Croelick stood, Croelick started to walk away towards the parking lot on the other side. "He's getting away" he said to Sharon as he started to walk his direction but Sharon held him back. He looked at her but Sharon just shook her head and he knew what that meant, stand down.

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 8

Sharon, Andy, and Matthew along with Moxie walked back into the condo after being at the park for about two hours. Andy was a little mad that Sharon didn't allow him to go after Croelick when he saw him standing in the park. She had told him that it was a public place and Croelick had every right to be there just as much as they did. Of course, Andy didn't like that answer. He made his way outside on the balcony and pulled out his phone. Provenza would want to know about it and perhaps he would have a different answer than what Sharon had given him. 'Went to De Longpre Park with Matthew. Croelick was there crowd watching. Sharon stopped me before I could confront him. He left' Andy texted to Provenza.

Andy turned around and looked inside the condo at Sharon and Matthew. Sharon was showing him something in the living room and Moxie was on the couch. He needed to know how Croelick knew about his kids and the only way to find out, was to ask him directly. How was he supposed to do that, he thought to himself. 'At least we know he didn't go back to Fresno' Provenza texted him back. His phone rang next. "Hello" he said to Provenza on the other end. "The Captain did you a favor by not allowing you to confront him in that park. First of all, it is a public place. Second, what were you going to do if you did confront him" he said to Andy. "I hate it when you're right" Andy said quietly to him. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear you" Provenza said back to him. "Don't let it go to your head" Andy said.

"So what's the game plan now?" Andy said to him. "Well, I'm getting ready to have dinner with Patrice and I suggest you do the same with everyone there" Provenza said. "That's not very helpful" Andy said back to him in disgust. "Look, Flynn, we can't really do anything. He's a free man" Provenza started to say. "Yeah, who's stalking Sharon and me" Andy interrupted him. "We don't know that for sure" Provenza said and Andy huffed. "I blame you for this, if you didn't mention his name to Sharon, he wouldn't have come back here" Andy said to him. "Yeah, well if I hadn't mentioned his name, we would still be working that case trying to solve it!" Provenza said to Andy. Andy huffed again. Provenza could tell that Andy was bothered by all of this. "Look, just have dinner with the family tonight. Go to the doctor's tomorrow morning. And by the time you and the Captain come to work, hopefully Mike and I will have some concrete information, okay?" Provenza said to his friend. "Yeah, fine" Andy said to him. "See you tomorrow" he added and then he hung up his phone.

He turned around to look at the sun that was starting to set. He needed to prove that Croelick was stalking them, but how could he prove that. "How can I prove that" he said out loud as Sharon opened the sliding glass door and joined him. "How can you prove what?" Sharon said to him as she came up beside him and placed her hand on the his back. Andy froze. He looked at her and she looked at him with inquisitive eyes. "How can you prove what, Andy?" she asked him again. He couldn't lie to her. "That Croelick is following us" he said to her. She looked at him and nodded her head. "That seems to be the question of the hour" Sharon said to him. "We don't know if he followed us there or if he just happened to show up and we were there, right?" Sharon started to tell him. "He needs to be monitored" Andy said. "Yes, but we need a reason to follow him around" Sharon said back to him. "Otherwise, he can claim the police is pursuing him unlawfully, and he would win" she added as Andy moved in front of her and held her face in his hands. "You know I love you right?" he whispered to her. "Yes" she said back to him as she looked into his dark, brown eyes. They held each other's gaze for what seemed like hours, until Sharon started talking again. "We should decide what's for dinner" she said to Andy. She took hold of his hand and led him back inside. He closed the door behind them. "So, Matthew would you like pizza for dinner?" Sharon said to Matthew as they walked towards the kitchen.

"Matthew, is all of your homework done?" Sharon asked him as they were finishing up eating the pizza that they ordered. "Yes, I think so" he said as he got up from his chair and went to where his backpack was at. Andy was clearing the table and placed the left over pizza in some foil and placed it in the refrigerator. Matthew came back with his folder and gave it to Sharon. Sharon sat back down and went over the contents of the folder with Matthew. Everything was done and Sharon told Matthew to place it back in his backpack for tomorrow. Sharon's phone alerted her to a message. It was from Rusty. 'Just got back to Gus's place from spending the day at Newport Beach. Tired so I am just going to crash here' it said. Rusty was becoming more independent and Sharon was happy for that.

It was getting late and Matthew was falling asleep on Andy as they sat on the couch watching a movie on the Hallmark Channel. Sharon turned to Andy as she sat next to them. "I think it's past his bedtime" Sharon whispered to him. "Yeah, we should probably wake him and get him ready for bed" he said to her and smiled. Sharon gently woke Matthew up and he got up and walked with both of them down the hallway to get ready for bed. As Matthew put his pajamas on in the bathroom, Sharon was in Rusty's room laying out his clothes for school. Andy brought Matthew back in the room and Matthew climbed up on the bed. Sharon tucked him in and as soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out. Sharon joined Andy at the door and they both walked out and headed back to the living room.

The TV was still on when they came back in the living room and Sharon sat back down on the couch. Andy went to get Moxie's leash to take him out one more time before they went to bed. "I'm going to take him out" Andy said to Sharon as he passed her to get the dog's leash. On his way back with the dog, Andy leaned down and gave Sharon a kiss on her lips. Sharon deepened the kiss which drove Andy crazy. They broke apart and smiled. "I'll hurry up with the dog, don't go anywhere" he said to her and then turned around and took the dog out. Sharon just chuckled back at him and continued to watch the movie on TV.

Andy was outside with Moxie as he sniffed the grass for his spot. Andy was looking around. It was a busy night for a Sunday. People were out walking their dogs or walking with a group of people. He wanted to make sure Croelick was nowhere near them. He didn't see anyone that matched Croelick and there were no cars parked on the street. A group of teenagers were approaching where Andy and Moxie were currently and Andy looked at them as they passed him. Moxie was all done outside so they headed back inside.

Andy unlocked the door and Moxie went inside. Andy closed and locked the door behind him and walked up to Sharon who was still sitting on the couch watching the movie. He leaned down and started kissing her neck, she moved her head and kissed him on his lips. Sharon took Andy's hand and led him around to the front of the couch where she pulled on his hand and got him to sit down with her. They watched the rest of the movie and when it was over, they turned the TV off and headed down the hallway. Moxie followed them and went into the room with Matthew for the night. Andy closed the door and then they headed into their bedroom and closed the door behind him to get ready for bed. "We need to get up early tomorrow morning" she said to him as she set their alarm. "We need to take Matthew to school and drop off Moxie at the doggie day care place, then get over to your doctor's appointment for 8:30" she said to him as he got ready for bed.

When Andy came out of the bathroom, Sharon went in there and got herself ready for bed. Andy was watching her from the door frame the led to the bathroom. She smiled as she walked passed him. Andy grabbed her hand as she walked by him and pulled her in close to his body. "I love you" he whispered to her. "I love you too" she whispered back to him. They climbed into bed together and Andy held Sharon close to him as they both fell asleep.

The next morning, Andy woke up to the alarm that Sharon had set going off. Sharon was still asleep in his arms as he reached over to shut the annoying alarm off. Sharon stirred and opened her eyes. Andy was looking at her and she was looking back at him, still blinking trying to get the sleepiness out. "You're beautiful do you know that?" Andy said as he leaned down to kiss her. "Hmm, good morning to you too" she said back to him. As much as Andy wanted to take her in his arms and show her how much she meant to him, he knew that they had to get out of bed and start their morning.

Sharon walked in their closet and chose her Armani pant suit and purple blouse to wear this morning. Andy was in the shower, so Sharon also chose Andy's suit, shirt, and tie to wear and laid them out on the bed. Once Andy was finished, he walked back in their bedroom with his towel wrapped around his waist and saw the shirt and tie Sharon had picked out for him to wear. "So we are going with purple today?" he said to her as she passed him to go in to the bathroom. "I like purple" she said to him as she closed the bathroom door. "I know you do" he said to himself as he started to get dressed.

A couple of minutes later, Andy went across the hall to wake up Matthew. As he opened the door, he saw Matthew was sitting up on the bed playing with some stuffed animals. "Hey buddy, you're up already" Andy said to him as Matthew continued to play with his animals. Andy sat on the side of the bed. Matthew handed him a bear. "You can be the bear Andy" Matthew said to him. "Okay, what do I do?" Andy asked him. "Just move him around and chase me" Matthew said. Andy moved the stuffed bear around the bed and Matthew was moving the stuffed alligator. Andy had heard the water shut off so he knew Sharon was done with her shower. "Okay, Matthew, time to get dressed and ready for school now" Andy said to Matthew. Matthew got up out of bed and went over to grab his clothes. Andy opened the door and Matthew went in to the bathroom. Andy followed him and helped him get dressed. Sharon was in their bedroom getting herself ready when Moxie came in to their room and sat down next to her.

Everyone was dressed and ready to go by 7:45. Andy led them out the door and Sharon locked up behind them. They got to their car and decided that they would take Andy's car today. Everyone got in, the dog jumped in the backseat and Andy drove off towards Matthew's school. Traffic wasn't that bad for being a Monday morning and Andy pulled up in front of the school to let Matthew off. Matthew said good bye to them and to Moxie and got out of the car and headed to where the other kids were going in the school. Matthew turned around and waved to them before entering the building. "I think he is getting the hang of things now" Andy said to Sharon as she watched Matthew enter the building. Andy then drove them to the doggie day care facility and got out to take Moxie inside. Five minutes later he came back to the car and they headed to his doctor's appointment.

Sharon went to go sit down in the waiting area as Andy went to the front desk to check in for his appointment. The nurse at the desk told him it would be a couple of minutes. Andy then went back to sit next to Sharon. The waiting room was crowded this morning. One of the nurses opened the door and called Andy's name. Andy and Sharon both stood up and Sharon followed Andy through the door to an exam room. "Hello Andy, I'm Nicole. I'm going to get your vital signs for now" the nurse said to Andy. "Okay" Andy said as he took his suit jacket off and dress shirt and handed them to Sharon. Sharon sat down on one of the chairs in the room. Andy then sat on the exam table and faced the nurse who was going to take his blood pressure. "You're blood pressure is good, 120/80" the nurse told them. Andy was surprised it was normal with all the stress he has dealt with the past couple of days, especially with Croelick in the picture.

The nurse took the rest of his vitals and everything was normal. "Okay, Sarah is going to come in next and take an EKG" the nurse said to Andy and Sharon as she left the room and closed the door. "See Sharon, nothing to be worried about. So far, everything is normal" Andy said as he smiled at her. Sharon was always nervous whenever Andy had a doctor's appointment. "I'm very happy so far that everything has gone well" Sharon told him and smiled back at him. Sarah knocked on the door and entered with the portable EKG machine. "Hi Andy, my name is Sarah and I am going to take an EKG of your heart rhythm" she said to him. "You can lay down on the table" she said to him as she started to place the electrodes underneath his t-shirt. Andy laid down and Sarah was finishing placing the electrodes on him. "Okay, I need you to lay still but breath normally" Sarah told him and then she started the test. Within a minute they had the printout of Andy's EKG and Sarah unhooked him from the machine. "Alright, the doctor will be in shortly" Sarah said to Andy and Sharon as she left the room.

Andy sat up on the exam table and waited for the doctor to come in. He looked over at Sharon who was fidgeting with Andy's suit jacket. "I think you are more nervous than I am" he said to her. The doctor entered the exam room. "Hello Lieutenant, good to see you again" the doctor said to Andy. "Hi Doc" Andy said back to the doctor. "Let's take a look at your EKG here" the doctor said as they held up the EKG paper. "Normal sinus rhythm, that's what we like to see" the doctor said to Andy. "Okay, I'm going to listen to your heart now" the doctor said as they placed the stethoscope on Andy's chest. The doctor moved the stethoscope around Andy's chest listening to his heart and his lungs. "Sounds good" the doctor said as he checked Andy's ankles. "Any swelling around your ankles?" the doctor asked him. "No" Andy replied.

The doctor then pressed in the area of Andy's ribs with their hands. Andy winced when the doctor ran their hands on his left side. "Does that hurt you?" the doctor asked him. "A little, it comes and goes" Andy said to the doctor. "How long has that hurt you?" the doctor asked him. "Um, well it comes and goes and sometimes it doesn't hurt at all" Andy said. "Uh huh, and how did you hurt that area?" the doctor asked Andy. "About a week ago, maybe. I was wearing my bullet proof vest and I was shot at, the bullet grazed my vest but ever since then, that area has been sore. But not all the time, Doc" Andy explained to the doctor who was still checking out Andy's range of motion and checking his carotid artery in his neck. "I would like for you to get an x-ray, I would like to see what is going on there exactly" the doctor told Andy. "We have one here and Nicole will come back in and take you to get the x-ray. But first, I want to take a blood sample and see how that looks" the doctor said as they pulled out the blood testing kit.

After getting the blood drawn, Nicole the nurse came back in and walked Andy to where the x-ray machine was at. Sharon stayed in the room and waited for him to come back. Five minutes later, Andy came back in the room and sat back down on the exam table. "Are you okay?" Andy asked Sharon as he looked at her with concern. "I'm fine" Sharon said as she looked back at him. He could tell something was up. He thought Sharon had been crying because her eyes were a little red. "You know, I am going to be just fine" he said to her. She smiled at him and he smiled back. They waited about fifteen minutes before the doctor came back in the room.

"Okay, your blood work looks good. I would still like to see your HCL a little higher than it is now, keep eating the cardiac diet you have been on" the doctor started saying. "Okay" Andy said. The doctor then flipped the x-rays up on the viewing board for both Andy and Sharon to see. "It looks like you have a hairline fracture on your rib here" the doctor said pointing out the area on the x-ray. "That would explain why you said the pain comes and goes and sometimes you don't notice it at all" the doctor said to them. "Is it serious?" Sharon asked the doctor as she looked at the x-ray and then at Andy. "No, it's fairly common when you have trauma to the chest area. In your case Lieutenant, the bullet grazing your vest" the doctor said to Sharon.

"I want you to take it easy for a couple of days, it should start to heal on its own. And if you are in pain, I want you to take something over the counter, like Advil or Tylenol" the doctor said to Andy. "Okay" Andy said. "Icing the area wouldn't hurt either" the doctor added. "Other than that, you are all set. I am very encouraged by the way your heart has been doing, let's set up another monthly appointment. And if your rib starts to really hurt, or you have trouble breathing, go to the nearest ER and have them page me, okay" the doctor said to Andy as he shook his hand. "Stay out of trouble Lieutenant" the doctor said as he left the exam room. Sharon stood up and shook her head at Andy. She held out his shirt for him and then his jacket as he got dressed. "What am I going to do with you?" Sharon said to Andy as she helped him button his shirt. He looked at her like a little kid would. Andy made an appointment in a month and then joined Sharon who was waiting for him in the waiting area. They left and headed for the office.

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 9

Sharon and Andy arrived at the PAB and Andy parked the car in his usual spot. They got out of the car but Sharon stopped him as he opened her door. "I do want you to take it easy Andy, okay?" she said to him as she placed her hand on the front of his jacket. "We have our move Wednesday and Thursday is Thanksgiving, I don't want a repeat of last year when you had your surgery" Sharon said in a quiet voice. Andy looked at her and smiled. "Yes, ma'am" he said to her and held her hand as they started to walk towards the building.

They got off the elevator and headed towards their office when Chief Howard stopped them in the hallway. "Captain, Lieutenant" Chief Howard said to the two of them. "Chief, do you need something?" Sharon asked him. "I just wanted to commend you both on your dealing with Croelick the other day. Believe me, I know how he can be and how he creeped Brenda out when she dealt with him" Chief Howard said to them and then he headed for his office. "Should we tell him he's been hanging out, watching us?" Andy asked Sharon as they entered their office. "No, not yet. Not until we have something" Sharon said to him. "Does he want to keep his position as Assistant Chief?" Andy asked Sharon as they stood out in the hallway. Sharon looked at the direction Howard went and then looked back at Andy. "He might, I'm not sure" Sharon said. Andy looked back at her. "Any thought of you putting in for that job?" Andy asked her. She was lost in thought when Andy asked her that. He asked her that before, but for some reason with everything that has been going on in both of their lives, she didn't want to think about a new position. Sharon looked back at Andy and just shook her head no.

Everyone was already there as Sharon and Andy made their ways inside. Provenza and Mike were discussing something at Mike's desk when they walked in. Sharon nodded to the two of them and then pointed at her office. Andy followed her into her office. Sharon sat down at her desk as they all made their way inside. Mike closed the door behind him and took a seat. Andy leaned up against the table and Provenza sat across from Sharon. "Okay, do we know anything more, off the record?" Sharon asked Provenza and Mike. "Yes Captain" Mike said as he handed a report to her. "The dumpster in your building had residue of charcoal, lighter fluid, and linseed oil" Mike said to them. "Was it set deliberately?" Sharon asked Mike. "With that combination, I would tend to say yes, but we don't know for sure as there were no cameras in the area" Mike answered her.

Sharon looked up at her Lieutenants. "Anything else?" she asked them. "I managed to pull fingerprints off of the dumpster and ran them in our system, none of them matched Croelick's" Mike said. "Dammit" Andy muttered and Sharon looked over at him. "Okay" Sharon said as she got an idea. "Mike, is there any way you could see what Croelick was looking at on his phone while he was here?" Sharon asked him. "Not remotely, Captain. I would need his phone in order to do that" Mike said to her. "Is there a way we could get him to give up his phone for, what Mike?" Provenza said to him. "A couple of minutes would be all I need to mirror it" Mike said to Provenza. "However, we would need a court order in order to do all of that, gentlemen" Sharon said to them. "There's got to be another way" Andy said to them.

"Mike, when you ran the fingerprints you collected, did any of them pop up in the system?" Provenza asked Mike. "Yes, a few" Mike said as he handed that report to Provenza. "There's only three people listed on this report, you pulled at least ten" Provenza said to Mike. "Nobody else had a criminal record" Mike said as he shrugged his shoulders and looked at Sharon. "What are you getting at, Lieutenant?" she said to Provenza. "We run these three names, see what comes up" Provenza said. "Off the record, of course" he added. "Okay, go ahead and do that" Sharon said and Provenza and Mike left her office. Andy stuck around afterwards. "Maybe Mike can pull up the surveillance camera from the conference room at a different angle to see if we can see what Croelick was looking at on his phone" Andy said to her and he leaned over the chair in front of her desk. "Perhaps" Sharon said and then Andy left her office and headed towards Mike's desk.

Andy stood next to Mike who was sitting at his desk. "Um, Mike you got a second?" Andy asked him. Mike looked up at Andy. "Sure, what do you need?" Mike said to him. "I was wondering in the surveillance footage of Croelick sitting in the conference room, he is on his phone but the one angle I have doesn't really show what he was looking at" Andy started to explain. "You want me to look at the possibility of other angles from that footage?" Mike asked him. "If you could, maybe that's our other way" Andy said to him. "I may need Buzz's help on that" Mike said to Andy as he looked over at Buzz.

Mike and Andy walked over to where Buzz was sitting at his desk. "Buzz, are you busy?" Mike asked him. "No, did you need something Lieutenants?" Buzz asked them. Mike and Andy both looked at each other. "Uh, Buzz, we need you to help us look for something, but we need it to be off the record" Andy said to Buzz. "Off the record, sir?" Buzz questioned. "Yes, Buzz" Mike said as Buzz got up and the three of them went into electronics and closed the door behind them.

Provenza informed Amy and Julio that they needed to run a background on the names that Mike's fingerprint analysis came up with. Amy questioned Provenza about it. "As a favor for the Captain, this needs to be kept under wraps, off the record, if you will" Provenza said to the both of them. "Understood, sir" Julio said to Provenza and started to work on his person. "Sure" Amy said as she looked into her person.

Buzz was working on the video footage and Mike and Andy both watched him pull up the video of Croelick in the conference room. He then worked his magic and switched to a different angle when Croelick sat back down on the chair. "There, can you pause that?" Andy said as he pointed to the screen. "Sure Lieutenant" Buzz said to Andy as he did what he told him to do. He paused the screen the moment Croelick went to his phone. "Can we see what he was looking at?" Andy asked Buzz. "I'll try to blow it up but the image may get distorted" Buzz said to him. Moments later they had a good view of what Croelick was looking at on his phone, but just like Buzz said, it was a little blurry. Andy looked up at Mike. "Hang on, let me try something" Mike said to them as he left the room and headed over to his desk.

"The Captain and I appreciate you doing this Buzz" Andy said to Buzz as they waited for Mike to return. "No problem sir, you are like family to me with everything you and the Captain have helped me with" Buzz said to Andy. Mike came back in electronics with a disk. He handed it to Buzz. "Place this in the laptop and run the software on it. It should clarify the picture enough for us to see something" Mike said to Buzz. Buzz did as he was told. Moments later, the image on the screen was perfect.

"That son of a bitch" Andy said as he huffed. He looked at Mike and then at Buzz. "Looks like he was doing research on the both of you while he was sitting there" Mike said to Andy. "Keep it on the screen, I'm going to get the Captain" Andy said to them as he exited the room. He closed the door behind him and waited a couple of seconds before he headed towards Sharon's office. In that tiny span of fifteen minutes, Croelick had looked up both of Andy's children and saw both of their divorce decrees online, all public records for that matter. Andy walked towards Sharon's office and knocked on her door.

"Come in" she said and Andy opened the door. "I think you may want to come see the video in electronics" Andy said to her. "Do we know what Croelick was looking up?" Sharon asked him. "Yes" Andy answered. Sharon got up and walked over to Andy. She placed her hand on his arm and looked at him as she walked passed him towards electronics. Andy followed her inside the room. Sharon looked at the screen and saw frame by frame what Croelick was looking up on his phone. First he searched for Andy Flynn and saw his divorce online, which then led to finding out about his children. Then he searched for Sharon Raydor and saw her divorce from Jack, which in turn led him to know about Ricky, Rusty, and Emily. This made Sharon feel super uneasy. "He must have seen your nameplate on your desk" Mike said to Sharon.

"So, now we know how he knew about our children" Andy said in a low voice to Sharon. "But why? Why did he need to know that?" Sharon asked them. "Leverage down the road perhaps, Captain?" Mike said to Sharon. "But for what?" Sharon asked him. Mike shrugged his shoulders. Sharon continued to look at the screen, watching Croelick. "Now do we have enough to bring him in?" Andy asked her. "For what?" Sharon asked. "Stalking for one thing. He was at that park and seemed to be watching us. He looked us up" Andy said to her. Sharon thought for a moment. "But what would we bring in him for questioning on, Lieutenant? The park is a public space, anyone can go there" Sharon said to Andy. She had used his rank to address him and Andy had picked up on it right away.

Sharon left electronics and headed back towards her office. She did not want to get into an argument with Andy, especially in front of Mike and Buzz. Andy was riled up about this whole thing. She was too. It was a little uneasy knowing that Croelick knew that information. Luckily, when they had purchased the new house, they told Michael that they didn't want that information available to the public for police purposes. Sharon made it back to her office and she knew Andy was right behind her. She sat down at her desk and he closed the door and the blinds in her office before he spoke. "Yes, Lieutenant?" Sharon said to him as he turned around.

"Captain, Croelick obviously is fixated on us. We need to do something about it" Andy said to her in a harsh tone and then corrected himself. Sharon looked up at Andy and then looked away. "This is exactly what I didn't want to happen. Our personal life being brought into the office" Sharon said to him, quietly. Andy knew what she meant. They promised each other a while ago that they would keep personal out of their professional lives. But that was before Croelick came into the picture. Andy took a seat in front of Sharon's desk. "So what do we do now?" Andy quietly asked her. She had a lot on her mind as she looked at him from across her desk. Andy's health was the most important followed by Matthew, the move to the new house, and now dealing with Croelick, who either was or wasn't stalking them, she really couldn't determine that.

"We wait for him to slip up if he stays in town" Sharon said to Andy. She knew he would defend her and protect her at all costs. She needed him to heal properly with this rib issue now and didn't need him going off on his own against Croelick. She didn't know what Croelick was capable of, but she read the reports about him and she knew he could be dangerous.

There was another knock on her door. Sharon looked back at Andy. "Are you okay?" she asked him quietly. He looked up at her. "Yes" he answered. "Come in" she said to the person on the other side of the door. Provenza opened the door with Amy behind him. "Uh, Captain" Provenza said as he looked at both Andy and Sharon. "Oh, are we interrupting something?" he asked Sharon. "No" Sharon said as she shook her head. "Okay, well we've come across something I think you want to see" Provenza said as Amy closed the door behind them. Andy adjusted in his chair when they walked in. "What is it, Lieutenant?" Sharon asked Provenza. Amy handed Sharon the report she put together on one of the fingerprint matches that Mike had found.

Provenza looked at Andy who was looking back at Sharon. Andy then glanced over at Provenza. "What?" Andy asked him. Provenza shook his head. "Nothing" he said and then focused back on what Sharon was reading. "Where does she live, Amy?" Sharon asked her as she paged through the report. "In LA, Captain. Inglewood to be exact" Amy said to Sharon as she glanced over to look at Andy, then went back to looking at Sharon. "Do we know if she has kept in touch with Croelick since he was released from prison years ago?" Sharon asked Amy and Provenza. Andy moved forward in his chair, not knowing who they were talking about. "No Captain, we are still looking into that" Provenza said to Sharon. "Wait a minute, who's everybody talking about?" Andy inquired. Sharon looked up at him and handed him the report. "Apparently, Croelick had an admirer while he was sitting on Death Row. She sent him all kinds of letters back then" Sharon explained to him. "So, why were her fingerprints pulled off the dumpster from your condo if she lives in an apartment in Inglewood?" Andy said to Sharon. "That's a very good question" Sharon said to them.

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 10

The Murder Room seemed to be busy later that morning. The team was officially working on the dumpster fire now. Everyone seemed to be focusing on the new lead, a woman who had been a sort of pen pal to Croelick when he was on Death Row. "Okay everyone, what do we have so far" Sharon said to her team as she approached everyone gathered at the Murder Board. "Okay, her name is Missy Braxton, she's 35 years old. She resides in Inglewood in an apartment there" Amy said to Sharon and the rest of the team. Amy placed her picture up on the board. "According to her landlord, she lives be herself, ma'am" Julio added to the discussion. "What does she do for a living?" Sharon asked them. "She works as a waitress part time at the Regal Eagle" Mike said. "She also works for a housekeeping company part time" Mike added as he read part of the report.

"So when did she first start writing to Croelick?" Andy asked the group. "Uh, looks like the letters started around the time he was sentenced to Death Row, sir" Julio said to Andy as he looked through the papers he had on his desk. "How many letters are we talking about here?" Provenza asked. "Five" Julio said to him. "Only five? That doesn't constitute anything" Provenza said. "A week, sir. And she wrote him all the way up to a month before he gets released" Julio added. "So, Croelick had a nut job sending him letters while he was in jail. That's nothing new. So why would this Missy person set a fire in a dumpster where the Captain and I reside at?" Andy stated to the group. "We don't know if she was the one, but her fingerprints were awfully close to the center of that dumpster" Mike said to Andy. "So what's the connection here?" Sharon said as she looked at the Murder Board.

"Croelick got released from jail years ago, why all of a sudden does Missy pop up?" Sharon asked her team as she turned around and looked at them. "I don't know Captain" Mike said to her. Andy's cell phone rang. He looked at the caller id on the phone, didn't recognize it but saw it was a local number so he answered it. "Lieutenant Flynn" he said to the other person on the line. "Hello Lieutenant Flynn this is Mrs. Gottardo, the Principal at St. Anne's School" the other person said. "Oh, hello, how can I help you?" Andy said back to the Principal as he moved away from the group. "It's about Matthew" the Principal said to him. "Is he okay?" he said and that got the attention of Sharon who followed Andy over to his desk. "He says he's not feeling good. The teacher sent him to see the school nurse" the Principal explained. Andy nodded and then covered the phone with his hand. "It's Matthew's school, they say he isn't feeling good" Andy explained to Sharon. "What's wrong with him?" Sharon asked Andy. "The nurse said that Matthew said his stomach hurt him" the Principal said. "Okay Mrs. Gottardo, either myself or my wife will come pick him up. Thank you for calling" Andy said and hung up his phone. He looked at Sharon.

Sharon glanced at her watch. It was almost lunch time so they could both go to pick up Matthew, however Sharon didn't know if he should come back to the office with them or if one of them should stay home with him. Andy walked up to her and placed his hand on her arm. "I can go pick him up and bring him back here for the rest of the day" Andy said to her. "I'll go with you" Sharon said to Andy and then walked back to the rest of the group. "Change of plans, let's break for lunch now. Andy and I have to go over to Matthew's school and pick him up. We will be back" Sharon said to Provenza. "Is the kid okay?" Provenza asked her. "The school nurse says he has a stomach ache" Sharon said as he rejoined Andy and went into her office to get her purse. Sharon then exited the office followed by Andy, who looked over at Provenza and nodded. Andy met up with Sharon by the elevator and they rode down to the car.

"Did the Principal say anything else over the phone?" Sharon inquired as she got into their car. "No, just that the nurse said Matthew had a stomach ache and the Principal called us" Andy said as he got in and started the car. He then drove them over to the school. "I know you don't want to talk about the case now, but I do think it is a little strange that a woman who had sent letters to Croelick while he was in jail, all of a sudden pops up with her fingerprints on the dumpster that had caught fire the other night" Andy said as they stopped at a red light. "It is odd, Andy" Sharon said as she looked out the window. The light turned green and the cars proceeded to go. They arrived in front of Matthew's school ten minutes later and they both walked up to the front entrance and hit the buzzer by the front door. The front door buzzed and Andy opened it for Sharon as she walked through. They went towards the front office where they spoke to the secretary. "Hi, we are here to pick up Matthew Gomez" Sharon said to the lady.

The Principal walked out of her office and greeted the two of them. She then walked with them to the nurse's office where Matthew was sitting on a bed. Andy walked in the room first and saw Matthew. "Hey, kiddo what's the matter?" Andy asked him as he gathered his backpack from Matthew. "My stomach hurts" Matthew said in a low and quiet voice. Andy led him outside to where Sharon was talking with the Principal. "Hi" Sharon said to Matthew. Matthew looked up at Sharon. "Hi" Matthew said to her. Sharon put her hand on his shoulder and walked with him. Andy was behind them and thanked the Principal for notifying them. They all left the school and headed towards the car. "Why does your stomach hurt?" Sharon asked Matthew. Matthew shrugged his shoulders. "Do you feel like throwing up?" Sharon asked as they reached the car and she opened the backseat door. "No" Matthew said quietly as he climbed into the backseat and put his seatbelt on. Sharon looked at Matthew and sighed. She closed the door and got in the car herself. Andy placed the backpack on the other side in the backseat and got in the driver's side. They headed back to their office.

When Andy pulled in the parking garage and parked the car, Sharon and Matthew got out and waited for Andy. He came around with Matthew's backpack and the three of them headed towards the elevators. Sharon looked down at Matthew who was right by her side. She thought that Matthew looked a little better than when they had picked him up. Andy, Sharon, and Matthew all stepped in the elevator and rode it up to their floor. Andy made sure that Sharon got Matthew settled in her office and then he turned to her. "I was going to go get something quick from the deli downstairs, what would you like?" Andy asked her. "I'm fine with a salad" Sharon said to him as she got Matthew to sit on the couch. Sharon then walked over to where Andy was standing by the doorway. "Could you get him something bland while you are there?" Sharon asked him as she smoothed his tie he was wearing. "Sure" Andy smiled at her and she smiled back.

Andy ran into Provenza as he was leaving the office. "Is the kid okay?" Provenza asked him. "He said his stomach hurts him. I'm heading downstairs to the deli to get something and bringing it back. They are in her office" Andy said Provenza as he made his way back to the elevators. The elevator door opened and Andy stepped inside. He was glad that he was the only one in it. It gave him time to think about everything. When the elevator reached the main floor, Andy stepped out and headed towards the deli outside the building. As he walked out of the door, he spotted Croelick leaning up against the PAB building, smoking a cigarette. He confronted him right there. "What are you doing here, Croelick" he said to him as he got right up as close as he could without touching him. "Hello Andy" Croelick said back to him. "Isn't it just a nice day?" he added and smiled. Andy grabbed his arm and led him to around the corner of the building.

"Why have you been following us?" Andy said to him as he let go of Croelick's arm. Croelick smoothed out his jacket and looked back at Andy. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and placed it on the ground to knock it out. "Have you found Missy yet?" Croelick said to him. "What do you know about her?" Andy said as he was starting to get angry. "She started the fire in your dumpster" Croelick said. Andy got up in his face. "How do you know about that?" he gritted his teeth. "I'm protecting your captain" Croelick said to him. This made Andy's blood boil. "What do you mean protecting her? That's my job" Andy said as he pushed Croelick up against the building. "Easy Andy, wouldn't want to upset your blood pressure now" Croelick said to him. Andy just stared at him. "You and I are going to have a little chat upstairs" Andy said to Croelick as he grabbed his arm and led him back into the building.

Andy pulled out his phone and dialed Julio's number. "Yes Lieutenant?" Julio answered his phone. "Julio, I need you to come downstairs in the lobby and meet me there" Andy said to him over the phone. "Yes sir" Julio said as he hung up. Minutes later, Julio met Andy in the lobby and saw him with Croelick. Julio rushed over to them. "He has information that will help us with our current investigation" Andy told Julio. He pulled Julio to the side. "I was on my way to the deli down the street when I ran into him outside. I'll take him upstairs, but I need you to run to the deli and pick up a salad for the captain and some chicken noodle soup for Matthew" Andy said to Julio. "Sure, sir. Did you want anything?" Julio said to Andy as he looked over at Croelick. "Get me a soup too" Andy said as he handed money over to Julio. Julio nodded and then walked out the door. This way Sharon and Matthew would get their food while Andy brought Croelick up to their floor.

Andy grabbed Croelick again by the arm and led him towards the elevators. "You know, I can walk on my own" Croelick said to Andy. "Yeah, well I don't trust you. And right now you are with me" Andy said to him as they both stepped in the elevator. Another person tried to get in the car as well with them. Andy stopped them from entering. "Wait for another one" he told them and the doors closed. Croelick was standing on one side of the elevator as Andy kept looking at him. The doors opened and Andy took Croelick out of the elevator and proceeded to the Murder Room. Croelick walked in first followed by Andy. Sharon was still in her office with Matthew when she saw Andy walk in with Croelick. She glanced over at Matthew who was sitting on the couch reading a book. She stood up and walked to her office door. "I'll be right back, okay Matthew?" she said to him. Matthew looked up at her. "Okay" he said.

Sharon walked out of her office and closed the door behind her. She glanced over at Andy as the two of them made their way through the office. "I ran into him downstairs" Andy said to Sharon and Sharon nodded. "Amy, can you show Mr. Croelick the interview room please" Sharon said to Amy and Amy led Croelick down the hallway to the room. Mike also followed them. Sharon then turned her attention to Andy. She had her hands on her hips and the look that she was giving Andy at the moment told Andy that she was not pleased. "Look, I started to go to the deli when I saw him standing outside and I went over to him and" Andy started saying to her. "And what? He just willingly came up here with you?" Sharon said to Andy. Andy gave Sharon a look. He really couldn't believe she wanted to argue with him. "He has information. He knows about Missy. Told me that she was the one who started the fire in the dumpster" Andy said back to her. Sharon went to say something but Provenza interrupted her. "Wait a minute Flynn, Croelick told you that Missy, here, started that fire in the dumpster of the condo?" Provenza said as he looked at Andy and then at Sharon. Sharon glanced back at her office and walked towards it. She saw Matthew was still reading a book on the couch. She then looked back at both Andy and Provenza. "Alright, let's hear what Croelick has to say" she told them as she walked down the hallway.

Provenza followed her and Andy was behind both of them. He grabbed Sharon's hand and she stopped and turned around, looking at him. "I want you staying with Matthew" she said to him quietly. She didn't want Andy in the room when they interviewed Croelick, too much animosity between the two. Andy looked back at her with a hurtful look. "He's sick, one of us needs to stay with him" she said to him. She then walked with Provenza and headed into the interview room. Andy turned around and headed towards Sharon's office. Julio arrived with the food that Andy asked him to get. "Here you are sir" Julio said to Andy as he handed the bag to him. "Thanks" Andy said. "Where's everyone?" Julio asked. "The Captain and Provenza are interviewing Croelick right now" Andy said with a disappointed voice as he unloaded the bag. "She's protecting you, sir" Julio said back to him and then headed to electronics to observe the interview.

"I'm not the one that needs protecting" Andy muttered to himself as he opened Sharon's office door and brought Matthew his soup. He then placed Sharon's salad and his soup in the mini fridge in her office. "Hey kiddo, are you still feeling bad?" Andy said as he sat across from Matthew. "No, I'm feeling better" Matthew said back to him. Andy needed to see this interview with Croelick and he hated that Sharon was handling him. He didn't need to be handled he thought to himself. "Do you want some soup?" Andy asked Matthew. Matthew took a little bit of soup and ate it. "Want to tell me what happened at school this morning?" Andy asked him. "One of the kids in class made fun of me" he told Andy. "I'm sorry buddy, what did they say to you?" Andy said to Matthew. "They called me a weirdo and I didn't want to complete what the teacher told us to do" Matthew confessed to Andy. He felt better letting him know. "Did you tell your teacher?" Andy asked. Matthew shook his head no. Andy sighed as he knew he was going to have to discuss this on top of everything else with Sharon when this whole ordeal was over.

Meanwhile, Sharon and Provenza were sitting across from Croelick now. "Hello Sharon, it's nice to see you again" Croelick said to her. "Enough with the pleasantries, Croelick. Lieutenant Flynn said you have some information for us" Sharon said to him. "I told you last time, please call me Bill" Croelick said back to her. "Where is Andy? Did you put a leash on him, Sharon?" Croelick said to her. "Alright Croelick, what information do you have for us" Provenza said to him. Croelick stared at Sharon and then looked at Provenza. "I'm assuming you ran fingerprints on the dumpster fire in your building from a couple nights ago" Croelick said to Sharon. Sharon swallowed before she answered. "What do you know about that fire?" Sharon asked him. "I heard about it, the middle of the night, smoke detectors going off throughout the building waking people up, you come out with your new family and wait outside while the fire department puts the fire out" he said back to her. Croelick describing that night gave Sharon chills. Croelick stared at her and smiled. "Where is Andy anyways?" Croelick asked them.

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** Thank you everyone for the reviews of this story. I'm glad you all are enjoying it!

Chapter 11

Croelick was sitting in front of Sharon and Provenza in the interview room. Both Sharon and Provenza were trying to get information from Croelick but he seemed reluctant to tell only them. "I will only tell the information to Andy" Croelick demanded. Provenza looked at Croelick and started to talk slowly. "You are not in a position to make demands, Croelick" he said to him. "I want to talk to Andy and you, Sharon" Croelick said to her. She looked over at Provenza. "It's okay Lieutenant, please could you get Andy and have him join us here" Sharon said to Provenza. "I'm not leaving you with him in here, Captain" Provenza said to her. "I'll be fine" Sharon reassured him. Provenza nodded, got up, and opened the door. She was a stubborn woman. He walked out of the interview room and saw Andy in Sharon's office. Julio walked out of electronics and headed with Provenza to Sharon's office.

"Flynn" Provenza said as he opened the door. Andy turned around and saw Provenza but didn't see Sharon. "Croelick is asking for you. Apparently he will only talk to you about the information he has" Provenza said to Andy as Andy stood up and headed out the door. "I'll watch Matthew sir" Julio said to Andy. Andy passed him up and walked with Provenza. "You left Sharon in there with him by herself!" Andy said to Provenza. Andy moved quickly down the hallway to the interview room and saw Sharon sitting in there with Croelick across from her. "Alright Croelick, I'm here so can you tell us what you know?" Andy said to him as he stepped inside the room and closed the door behind him.

"Okay. I'm assuming you found Missy Braxton's fingerprints on the dumpster at your condo, correct?" Croelick said to them as he shifted in his seat. "How do you know this?" Andy asked him. Croelick looked back at him. "Because Missy was my sort of pen pal when I was on Death Row. She wrote to me several times and I wrote back to her" Croelick started to say. "You see, things got a little crazy before I was released and she became sort of obsessed with me" he continued. Andy and Sharon both looked at him. "Well, you see, she stopped sending me letters until a week ago" Croelick said to them as he started to take out something from his jacket pocket. "Leave your hands on the table" Andy said to Croelick as he started to move out of his seat. "I want to show you something" Croelick said as he stopped his hand in midair by his jacket pocket.

"Go ahead" Sharon said to Croelick and then looked at Andy. Croelick reached into his pocket and pulled out three letters addressed to him from Missy. He then handed them to Andy. "As you can see, Missy started writing to me again, and man, I thought I hated the LAPD, she takes the cake on that one!" Croelick said to both Sharon and Andy. Andy handed the letters to Sharon as he was reading them. "You see Sharon, those letters concern you as well. That's why I told Andy here that I am trying to protect you, although he did not like that" Croelick said to Sharon as Sharon looked up at him. "As you see from the second letter to me, she didn't like the fact that you guys were questioning me again for those fires a couple of days ago" Croelick said to them. Andy was reading the last letter and was ready to punch his fist through the wall. He handed the letter to Sharon so she could read it. "She really doesn't like you very much Sharon" Croelick said. "When I received these letters I had to find her again, and make sure she didn't harm you" he added. "How did you get these letters?" Sharon asked him. "I went back home after I was done here that night and saw them sitting in my mailbox" Croelick answered.

"Why have you been following us and how do you know about our children?" Andy asked him. Croelick looked at Andy. "I was at that park, because Missy was watching you. I wanted to make sure that she didn't do anything and then when she left, I left as well" Croelick said to them. Andy was getting frustrated by the minute with Croelick. He has to have a second agenda with all of this but Andy can't figure it out. "Why were you outside the building today?" Sharon asked Croelick. She could tell Andy was getting frustrated and she placed a hand on his leg to try to calm him down. Croelick looked back at Sharon and smiled. "I wanted to let you know about Missy but I wasn't sure if you would believe me. But then when I saw Andy come out of the building and we had our chat there, I knew you already knew about her" Croelick said.

"Why should we believe you Croelick?" Andy said back to him. "I've helped you out before. That fire in Griffith Park years ago. Last week with Cora" Croelick stated to them. "Excuse us" Sharon said as she got up to leave the room. Andy got up and followed her out. Two patrol officers then came into the room to watch Croelick. Sharon walked a few steps and then stopped and leaned against the wall. Andy was right there by her side. "Are you okay, Sharon?" he said in a quiet voice to her as he placed his hand on her shoulder. Sharon closed her eyes and nodded. She then proceeded to electronics where she handed the letters over to Mike so he could run an analysis on them. "Who's watching Matthew?" she asked Provenza. "Julio is" he said back to her and she left the room and headed back to her office.

"What did the letters say?" Provenza asked Andy. "They're sick. She needs protection but I know she will refuse it" Andy said to Provenza. There was a worry look in Andy's eyes when he said that. "I can bring it up to Howard, Chief Howard, without her knowing and see what he says. He has no love loss for Croelick" Provenza said back to Andy. Andy nodded and then walked over to Sharon's office. He knocked on her door before he entered and saw Sharon looking over at Matthew who had fallen asleep on the couch. Andy walked over to her and pulled her into a hug. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you" Andy whispered to her. "I don't want a protection detail, Andy" Sharon said back to him. He had been right about her refusing the detail. "I'll cancel the move for Wednesday" Andy said to her. She shook her head no. "Don't, I don't want our lives interrupted by a psychopath again" Sharon said to him in a quiet voice. "I want everything to go as planned. We are closing on the condo next week, so the move has to be soon" Sharon added. Andy nodded and released her when she started to back away.

"So, as soon as Mike comes back with the analysis on those letters we can figure out what to do" Sharon said to Andy, as she got back into Captain mode again. "I spoke with Matthew earlier and he told me he was feeling better. I had asked him what happened at school and he said one of the kids made fun of him because he didn't want to complete an assignment the teacher had given everybody" Andy said back to Sharon. He didn't want to change the topic but it seemed like Sharon already did. "Once we figure out what to do with Croelick, I will talk with Matthew about what happened. Also, I was going to call Nicole and ask her if she would mine taking Matthew home with her so that he's not stuck here all night with us" Sharon said to Andy. "That's fine. I'm sure he will like that" Andy said to her. "In the meantime, I want to know where this Missy Braxton is at" Sharon said to Andy as she sat back down at her desk. "Okay, I'll get on that" Andy said to her. He hesitated for a minute before leaving her office and closing the door behind him.

"Why is she so stubborn" he said to himself as he made his way to the Murder Board. Amy was back at her desk along with Julio who was sitting across from her. They both looked up as Andy passed them. "Do you want us to do anything, Lieutenant?" Amy asked him. Andy turned around. "Yes, can you call Cooper, I would like them to find Missy and keep an eye on her" Andy said to Amy. "The Captain won't like that, sir" Julio said to him. "She told me she wants to know where Missy is at, plus if she doesn't want a protective detail on her, then I want to know exactly where this Missy is at all times" Andy said back to Julio.

Meanwhile, Provenza went to Chief Howard's office and spoke with him regarding the potential threat to the Captain. "I can't force her to take the protective detail, Lieutenant" Chief Howard said to Provenza as he sat across from him at his desk. "You and I both know that the Captain doesn't want protection" he added. Provenza was getting nowhere with the Chief. He thought that if he could somehow convince him to put a protective detail on the Captain without her knowing about it, then it would be okay. "Look Chief Howard, how about if we place a detail on her without her knowing about it, then she can't refuse it" Provenza said to him. Chief Howard looked back at Provenza and sighed. "And do you know who's ass she's going to chew when she finds out about this?" Chief Howard said to him. "Flynn's" Provenza answered without skipping a beat.

Matthew woke up and Andy took him into the break room to get something to drink. "Nothing sugary" Sharon said to them as they left. Sharon then called Nicole and asked her if she was available to stop by their work and pick up Matthew. "Of course, Sharon. We would love to have him come over" Nicole said to Sharon. "I can be there around 4 o'clock if that works with you" Nicole said to her. Sharon looked at her watch, Nicole would be there in a half hour. "That would be just fine, Thank you Nicole. We really appreciate it" Sharon said and then hung up her phone. Matthew and Andy came back with a can of ginger ale and went inside her office again. "I just spoke to Nicole and she will be here in a half hour to pick up Matthew" Sharon said to Andy. "Okay" he said back to her as he glanced at his watch.

Mike came back from the lab with the test results and immediately informed the Captain with the results. Mike knocked on her door and Andy opened it. Mike came inside her office. "Captain, here are the results of the analysis. It is her writing, they compared the letters previously sent to Croelick and this one now. Her fingerprints are also on it." Mike said as he handed the report to Sharon. "Thank you Mike" Sharon said and then turned to Andy. "Any news about finding the whereabouts of Missy?" Sharon asked Andy. "I have Amy and Julio working on that, Captain" Andy said to her. He wasn't lying to her. That was the truth, he just didn't tell her the details.

Nicole came upstairs to their office when she arrived and proceeded to Sharon's office. Andy was sitting at his desk looking over something with Provenza about the protective detail Sharon didn't know about. "Hi Dad!" Nicole said to him as she entered the room. "Hi sweetheart" Andy said to her as he stood up. She walked over and gave him a hug. "Sharon's inside with Matthew" Andy said as he pointed to her office. Andy walked with Nicole to Sharon's door and knocked. Matthew was happy to see Nicole walk in the room. "Hi Matthew, Sharon" Nicole said as she walked in. "I'm so glad you could do this Nicole" Sharon said to her. "Matthew, you are going to go with Nicole over to her house and stay there for a while until Andy and I finish up here, okay?" Sharon said to Matthew as she gathered his belongings from the couch. "Okay" Matthew said to her. "We will pick you up later tonight, okay" Andy said to him as he walked with them towards the door. "What about Moxie?" Matthew asked. Sharon and Andy both looked at each other. "If you want I could go pick him up as well, that way the boys and Moxie could play in our yard until you come pick them up" Nicole said to the two of them. "Now we really owe you Nicole" Sharon said to her. "It's really not a problem, Sharon, Dad" Nicole said to them. "Thanks sweetheart" Andy said to her and gave her a kiss on her cheek. Nicole and Matthew then left the room and headed outside.

"Alright, let's go see what Croelick wants, he's been sitting here too long" Sharon said to Andy. She walked past Amy's desk and asked her if they had made any progress locating Missy. "Julio and I are heading out to meet up with Lieutenant Cooper and SIS at her last known address to see if she is there. According to her waitressing job, she went home about an half hour ago" Amy said to Sharon. "Okay, good. Be careful" Sharon said to Amy and then proceeded towards the interview room. Her and Andy stepped back in the interview room while Provenza and Mike joined Buzz in electronics.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Croelick" Sharon said as they entered the room. "Oh, I don't mind at all, Sharon" Croelick said back to her. "Okay Croelick, we've located Missy and have a team heading over there now to bring her back here" Andy said to Croelick as he and Sharon both took a seat. "So, what do you want?" Andy asked him. "I don't understand?" Croelick said to him. "You brought this to our attention and we are now in the process of picking up Missy, so what more do you want?" Andy tried clarifying for him. Croelick was confused. "I just wanted Sharon to be safe, after all your kids and her kids need her, not to mention young Matthew" Croelick stated to them. "See now how do you know about our children, Croelick. No one here has ever mentioned them to you" Andy said to him. Croelick took a deep breath and then looked at Andy. "That's the beauty of public records, Andy. Everything is available" Croelick said to him. "Alright, if you are all done here I think you should leave before I change my mind" Sharon said to Croelick. "I'm hurt Sharon, I thought we had something. I bring this information to your attention and this is the thanks I get?" Croelick said to Sharon as he started to get mad.

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Now, you are free to leave" Sharon said to Croelick as she stood up from her chair. Andy stood up too, leaving Croelick still sitting in the room. "Well Sharon, it's been quite an experience here. I think I am going to go back home to Fresno now" Croelick said to them as he stood up. Just then, there was a knock on the door. "Captain, Amy just called and Missy is not at her residence. They do not know where she's at" Mike said to Sharon. Croelick started laughing out loud at what he had just heard. "Well, Captain. There might be a change of plans, looks like I won't be going back to Fresno right now" Croelick stated to Sharon. He came up close to Sharon but Andy stepped in front of Sharon, blocking her from Croelick. "Try to keep her safe Andy. I wouldn't want to see something happen to her, for your sake" Croelick said to Andy and then walked out of the interview room. Andy was ready to punch a wall at this point but he controlled himself.

TBC


	12. Chapter 12

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 12

Croelick left leaving Sharon and Andy inside the interview room with Mike. Andy looked at Sharon who seemed to be a little shaken by all of this, although she didn't show it. Andy knew her well enough to know. "Hey, we'll find her okay?" Andy said to Sharon as he placed his hand on her shoulder. This brought Sharon back and as she looked at Andy, she placed her hand on top of his. Mike's phone rang and he answered it. "Yes Amy" Mike said. He listened for a second and then spoke to Sharon. "Amy thinks Missy is at her other job at the housekeeping place, they are heading over there to see" Mike said to Sharon. Sharon nodded. "Tell Amy we will meet them there" Sharon said as she left the room. Andy looked at Mike and then walked out of the room and followed Sharon. "You sure you want to go out?" Andy said as he caught up with her. Sharon turned around slightly as she continued to walk towards her office. "I don't need you handling me, Andy" Sharon said to him. Andy stopped as she continued to walk. "I'm not" he said to himself.

Sharon came back out of her office and addressed her Lieutenants and Buzz. "Everyone, vest up, I want us to be safe. Buzz, bring your camera" Sharon said as they all got ready and headed down to the cars. Provenza came out of electronics and stopped Andy before he could join Sharon. "I just wanted to let you know that Chief Howard said that her detail will be there but invisible" Provenza said to him. Andy nodded and then headed towards the elevators to meet up with Sharon, Mike, and Buzz. They all made their way down to the cars and headed out to meet up with Amy, Julio, and the SIS team. Sharon got in the passenger side as Andy sat in the driver's side. Sharon was looking at her phone once she was settled. "Nicole said that Matthew is fine and everyone is playing with Moxie" Sharon said to Andy as he started the car. "That's good" Andy said as he drove out of the parking garage. They followed Mike, Provenza, and Buzz in their car towards the location of Missy's work.

"Please be careful, Sharon" Andy said as they made their way through the streets of LA. "I know your doctor told you to take it easy and I did as well, but I didn't think you would want to stay back at the office" Sharon said to him. "I wouldn't, besides someone needs to keep an eye on you" Andy said to her. This made her chuckle a little bit, which was welcomed after all the tense moments that have happened in the last 24 hours. Andy was going to tell her about the detail but he decided it could wait, they needed to concentrate on finding Missy right now. They pulled up at the location behind Mike, Provenza, and Buzz. Sharon got out and Andy did as well. They met up across the street from the business. "Captain, I called ahead and the person who answered the phone says that Missy is inside getting ready for her job" Amy said to Sharon. "Okay, I want everyone to be safe when approaching the place. We are going to follow SIS inside" Sharon said to them.

Andy stayed close to Sharon as he wasn't going to let her out of his sights. They were heading to the front of the building along with Cooper, Mike, and a couple of SIS officers. Provenza, Julio, Amy, and other SIS officers went around the back. Buzz stayed off to the side, waiting patiently. Sharon and Andy followed Cooper in the front door of the business and the secretary was at the front office. "Is Missy Braxton here?" Cooper asked the girl. "Yes, she's in the back with the rest of the crew getting ready for a job" she told him. "Can you have her come out here, please?" he said to her. She nodded and headed towards the back of the office. Sharon got on the radio and informed the rest of the team. "Missy left" the secretary came back and told Cooper. "What?" he said and then looked back at Sharon. "We need to check" he said as the secretary let them in to conduct a search. Andy stuck close to Sharon as they made their way through the business, meeting up with the rest of the team. Andy noticed the side exit that led to the fire escape. The door was open and he went outside and saw the ladder was already down, no Missy in sight. "Dammit" he cursed himself.

Sharon was standing with Cooper inside when Andy came back in to the lobby. "I'm sorry Captain, I thought we had everything covered" Copper told Sharon. "Not your fault, Lieutenant. She's on the run now" Sharon said to Cooper as she walked over to Andy. "Now what?" Andy said to her. "We head back to the office" Sharon said to him as the rest of the team gathered outside the building. "Captain, my team will track her movements again. When we get her in our sights again, we will let you know" Cooper said to Sharon. "Thank you" Sharon said as she stepped outside. "Thanks" Andy said to Cooper. "We will keep an eye on both, Lieutenant" Cooper said to Andy as they exited the building.

Sharon headed for their car as Andy caught up with her. She didn't say anything as she sat inside and waited for Andy to start the car. He glanced over at her when he placed the key in the ignition. He started the car, still looking over at her. She was looking out the window, not saying a word. "Sharon?" he said to her quietly. "Just drive, please" she said back to him, barely above a whisper. Andy nodded and drove back to the PAB. They arrived back at work, Sharon still silent as she walked back into the Murder Room. Andy followed behind her. It was getting late and they really didn't have any more leads for Missy's whereabouts. Sharon retreated back to her office and closed her door. Andy looked over at Provenza and headed back to his desk to sit down. Provenza waited a couple of minutes before knocking on her door.

"Come in" she said and Provenza entered her office. "Captain, I just want to let you know that we will not stop until we catch Missy, don't you worry about that" Provenza said. "I appreciate that Lieutenant, but it is getting late, why don't you go home and have everyone else do the same" Sharon said to him. "Yes Captain" he said to her as she turned her chair around to face her windows behind her desk. He then left her office, closing the door behind him. Andy got up and followed Provenza over to his desk. Provenza turned and looked at his best friend. "She's dismissed everybody for the night. Come back tomorrow morning and we will start all over again" Provenza said to everyone. He then went up close to Andy. "We've been through this before with the letter writing, just be careful and watch your backs" Provenza told Andy. "Did she say anything else to you?" Andy asked him. "No" he answered him as he gathered his stuff to leave. Andy turned around looking into Sharon's office. This was going to be a long night he thought to himself as he headed back to his desk. He decided he would wait until Sharon was ready to leave.

Her office door opened behind Andy and Sharon stepped out and went over to him. "What do you say we go pick up Matthew and Moxie and head home" she said to him as she leaned on his desk. Andy looked up at her and smiled. "Sounds good. Do you want to stop on the way and get some dinner, we didn't get to eat our lunch today" Andy said as he put his suit jacket back on and turned around facing Sharon. He stood before her looking into her eyes and she was looking back into his. She reached up and smoothed his tie downward towards the end. She had a worry look on her face again. He reached over to her and picked her chin up with his hand. "Everything is going to be fine" he said to her. She nodded and they headed out. Everything will be fine, Andy thought to himself, after all, Chief Howard had placed a protection detail on Sharon, which of course she didn't know about, which of course if she did find out about it, Andy would get the brunt of it. "Everything okay?" Sharon said as she looked over at Andy while they were in the elevator. Andy was lost in thought when Sharon brought him out of it. "Yes, everything is good" he said to her, reassuring her and himself for that matter.

"Is Rusty going to be home tonight or is he with Gus?" Andy asked as he started the car and they drove off headed towards Nicole's house. "He is at the condo already, packing up boxes for the move" Sharon said to him as she grabbed a hold of his hand on the gear shifter in the car. She intertwined her fingers with his as they continued to drive. They had stopped at a little Italian restaurant close to Nicole's house that they have been to on occasion and had a quick dinner there. After they were done eating, Sharon texted Nicole telling her they were on their way to pick up Matthew and the dog.

When they arrived at Nicole and Dean's house, Nicole answered the door and Sharon and Andy walked inside to the family room area. All of the boys were watching a movie and they were all sitting on the couch together. Dean was sitting on the chair with the ottoman and Moxie was laying on the floor next to him. "Grandpa! Grandma!" the boys said with excitement. "Hi guys!" Andy said as they gave him and Sharon a hug. "Hi Sharon, Hi Andy" Matthew said as he came over to them. "Hey Matthew, are you all set?" Andy asked him. Matthew went over to get his backpack from the coffee table and made sure he had everything for school in his backpack. Sharon spoke to Nicole and Dean by the front door. "Thank you again, so much, for doing this. We have a case now that is really troublesome" Sharon told them as she didn't want to give too many details out. "Anytime you need anything, please let us know" Nicole said back to Sharon. Sharon grabbed the dog's leash and Andy and Matthew followed her out of the house towards their car. Matthew turned around and waved to Nicole. "Bye!" he said to them as he walked with Andy.

They arrived at the condo about twenty minutes later and settled in for the night. Moxie went to lay down next to the couch. Matthew placed his backpack in the kitchen and sat down at the table there. Sharon had told him in the car that she wanted to speak with him about something. "Did you tell Sharon what I told you about school?" Matthew asked Andy as he was also in the kitchen. "I did buddy. We want to help you Matthew, okay and sometimes we need to tell each other what is going on so that we can all help one another" Andy tried explaining to Matthew.

Sharon had gone into their bedroom to change her clothes into something more comfortable. As she went down the hallway, she spotted Rusty in his room. "Hey" she said to him. Rusty turned around from the boxes. "Hey, is everything alright?" Rusty said back to her. Sharon wanted to tell Rusty about the letters and Croelick. She sat on his bed and spoke to him. "So, these letters, they were addressed to Croelick but they were about you?" Rusty asked her. "Yes, you see, she wrote him letters while he was in jail and seemed pretty upset again that we were speaking to him last week about those fires. She's very upset with me, although I can't figure that out, but I don't want this to interrupt our current life. We are going to move as planned on Wednesday and hopefully we can catch her before she does any more harm" Sharon said to Rusty. "Okay, I placed all of the kitchen items, minus a few dishes and other items we need in boxes earlier tonight and now I am working on boxing items in my room" Rusty said to her. "Thank you Rusty" Sharon said as she left his room. "No problem" Rusty said.

Sharon headed towards the kitchen where Andy and Matthew were sitting at the table. "Okay, Matthew I would like to know what happened this morning at school" Sharon said to him in a sweet voice. Matthew looked at Sharon and then looked down. "I don't want to get in trouble" Matthew said to her. "Oh, Matthew, you're not going to get in trouble. I'm sorry if I came across that way in the car but I just would like to know what happened, that's all" Sharon said reassuring Matthew as she looked over at Andy for any help he could give. "Remember what I told you earlier, Matthew, we want to help you" Andy said to Matthew. Matthew nodded and now had tears in his eyes. "I miss my mom" he said quietly to them. Sharon looked over at Andy again and then looked back at Matthew and placed her hand on his back. "Of course you do" she said to him. "What happened at school?" she asked him again. "The teacher gave us an assignment to do in school and it was supposed to be about our parents. I told Martin who sits next to me that I don't have a mom or dad anymore and he called me a weirdo" Matthew said as he was practically in tears now. This broke Sharon's heart right there as she looked at Matthew and then back at Andy. She leaned over to grab some Kleenex from the table and wiped Matthew's tears from his face. "It's okay" she whispered to him. "Did you tell your teacher?" Sharon asked Matthew. Matthew nodded his head no. "I didn't want to do the assignment, that's why I went to the nurse's office" Matthew said quietly. "I'll speak with your teacher tomorrow" Sharon said. "No! Please don't" Matthew pleaded with her. "Okay" she said back to him. He had stopped crying. "Why don't you go get ready for bed and then come back to the couch and I will read you a story" Andy said to Matthew. Matthew got up and headed down the hallway.

Sharon stood up from the table and went over to the sink in the kitchen. Andy followed her there and looked at Sharon grabbing her hand in his. "So many things going on, sometimes we forget what brought Matthew here with us" Sharon said to Andy. Andy pulled Sharon into a hug and reassured her that everything would work out. He then kissed her on her lips, but before they could get carried away, Matthew came back already for the story Andy had promised him. They walked over to the couch and Matthew handed Andy a storybook Sharon had picked up for him while they were shopping at Target the other day. It was about the First Thanksgiving. Andy read the book out loud to Matthew and Matthew needed up falling asleep, halfway in to the book.

Andy got up, not disturbing Matthew and headed down the hallway to see if Rusty was still packing up boxes. "Hey, you almost done here cause Matthew is sleeping on the couch" Andy asked him. "Yep, all done here" Rusty said as he left the room. Andy followed Rusty back to the couch. "I can pick him up Andy, with your rib I don't want you to aggravate it" Rusty said to Andy as he picked Matthew up from the couch. "She told you, didn't she" Andy said to Rusty as he followed him back down the hallway. "Yes" Rusty said as he placed Matthew on the bed. Moxie followed and Andy closed the door to the room. "Speaking of your mother, do you know where she is at?" Andy asked Rusty. "She's in the bathroom" Rusty said as he went back to the couch. "Thanks, good night" Andy said as he stepped inside their bedroom.

Andy walked over to the bathroom and opened the door slightly. He saw Sharon relaxing in the tub. He then walked in the bathroom and sat down next to the tub, careful not to disturb her. "You know, you could join me" she said to him as she opened her eyes and smiled. Andy chuckled a little bit and smiled back at her. He loved it when she smiled at him, and with everything that happened today, he was glad she was still smiling. She scooted forward as he stripped out of his clothes and slid in behind her. She then relaxed in his arms as he held her to him. They sat in the tub until it was time to get out. They dried each other off and Sharon slipped on her nightgown and headed back in to their bedroom. Andy quickly slipped on a pair of boxers and a t-shirt and followed her. She was already lying in bed when he joined her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. She tried to relax when he held her but she couldn't. Her mind was on a lot of things. Andy rubbed the back of her arms with his hand to try and get her to relax. They needed to find Missy and they also needed Croelick to go away.

TBC


	13. Chapter 13

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** Sorry, this chapter took a little longer to post then usual. There's a lot going on in this chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 13

Andy laid awake holding Sharon close to him as she slept. He heard their door open slightly and the sound of little feet making their way across the floor, along with the noise of the dog's collar. "What's the matter, buddy?" Andy whispered to Matthew as to not disturb Sharon. "Can I sleep in here?" Matthew whispered back to Andy. Andy moved over slightly and also moved Sharon over as well. "Come on up" Andy whispered back to him. Matthew climbed up on their bed and settled in. Moxie jumped on the bed as well and slept by Andy's feet. Andy sighed as everyone got comfortable. "Matthew's in bed with us" he whispered into Sharon's ear. "Okay" she mumbled and went back to sleep.

Morning came quick. Sharon's alarm clock went off waking both her and Andy. Sharon started to get out of bed when she noticed Moxie sleeping at the foot of the bed. "Moxie, get off the bed!" Sharon said in a quiet but stern voice. Moxie looked back at her and jumped off the bed, wagging his tail as he came around to greet her. Sharon made her way into the closet to pick out her clothes for the day while Andy took Moxie out. "One more day of the elevator, Moxie, and then we will be in our new house" Andy said to Moxie as they rode the elevator down to the main floor. They made their way outside and Moxie did his business. Andy looked across the street and saw a SIS van parked there. "Glad to see them" he said to Moxie as they made their way back inside and up to the 11th floor.

Sharon got dressed while Andy had the dog outside and then when she was done, she woke up Matthew and got him dressed as well. They made their way towards the kitchen, trying not to wake Rusty up as he had a late class today. Andy opened the door and Moxie ran inside ready to eat. Andy followed Moxie in to the kitchen and fed him his breakfast. Sharon and Matthew were sitting at the table eating cereal. "I'm going to get dressed now" Andy said to Sharon as he made his way back down the hall. "I laid a suit out for you" Sharon called to him. "Are you going to be okay at school today?" Sharon asked Matthew. She was worried about him. He nodded yes. "You know something Matthew? You could write about myself and Andy because we are your foster parents, if that helps you at all" Sharon said to Matthew as the boy ate his cereal. Matthew looked up at Sharon. Sharon smiled at him, and he gave a small smile back.

Andy came back in the kitchen ready to go to work and quickly made himself a bowl of cereal. Matthew was now sitting on one of the chairs in the living room with Moxie. Rusty was up and he was on his computer. "Come on Matthew, let's get your things ready for school" Sharon called out to him from the kitchen. Matthew got up and met her. She handed him his backpack and he waited in the hallway with Moxie. Andy placed his bowl in the kitchen sink and Sharon stood by the fridge, watching him. Andy turned around and smiled at her. "What?" he asked. "Nothing" she said as she stepped forward and met him with a kiss. "I love you" she whispered to him. "I love you too" he whispered back to her. They made their way out of the kitchen, said good bye to Rusty, and then headed out the door with Matthew and Moxie.

Just like the previous morning, they had dropped off Matthew at his school with no problems and then headed over to the Doggie Day Care center to drop Moxie off. They were now driving over to the PAB when they were stopped at a red light. Sharon took this time to look over at Andy. In two days it would be Thanksgiving and she had so many things to be thankful for this year. Tomorrow's move will provide a welcome distraction from everything that has transpired over the previous days, she thought to herself as they continued to drive, arriving at the office with just a little traffic delay.

Sharon and Andy made their way up to their office and proceeded inside like any normal morning would be. Sharon went to her office to put her things away and signed on to her computer. Andy went over to his desk, turned his computer on and proceeded to sit down and wait for it to start up. Provenza walked in after them and he was a little too cheery. Something was up, Andy thought to himself and he would ask Provenza later about it. Mike and Buzz were going over video footage of the housekeeping business to see if they had missed anything yesterday. Amy was on the phone with Cooper and Julio was sitting at his desk. Sharon looked up from behind her computer and looked at everyone sitting in the Murder Room. She got up and exited her office by Andy's desk. "Where are you going?" Andy asked Sharon. "I was just heading to the restroom, I'll be back" Sharon said to him. Just then Andy got a funny feeling and stood up to follow Sharon. "I'm going with you" he said as he caught up to her. He followed her to where the restroom was at on the floor and stood outside the door as she went in.

Sharon was washing her hands looking at herself in the mirror, she was thinking about a lot of things as she looked at herself. Thanksgiving, their move tomorrow, Matthew and Andy. She sighed as she finished. She looked down at her hands when someone jumped her from behind. She struggled with a woman but the woman pulled out of knife and Sharon's arm got cut. The woman grabbed Sharon from behind again. "Hello Sharon, I'm Missy, Bill's girlfriend. I just want to have a chat with you" Missy said to Sharon as she held the knife up to her throat.

Chief Howard came walking out of his office and spotted Andy down the hallway. "Hey Andy, what are you doing?" he said as he made his way towards the Murder Room. "Sharon's inside" Andy said as he pointed to the restroom door. "Everyone else is in the office" Andy said to him. Chief Howard nodded. "I'll wait for both of you before I address the rest of the team" he said, then headed to the Murder Room. "I wonder what that's about?" Andy said to himself as he stood by the door and waited for Sharon to come out. "I wonder what's taking her so long?" Andy said to himself as he looked at his watch. "Hey, Sharon?" Andy said as he knocked on the door. "Yes?" Sharon said. "Everything okay?" Andy asked her. "No" she said back to him. He opened the door to see Sharon and Missy standing before him. Andy immediately drew his weapon as Missy was holding Sharon and had a knife to her throat. He also noticed the Sharon's arm had been cut and was bleeding.

Andy walked a few steps inside the restroom, keeping his gun pointed at Missy. He needed to notify everyone else on the team but how? "You don't want to do this Missy, drop your weapon!" Andy said to her. "Stay back!" Missy said to him. She moved forward with Sharon and Andy moved backward out of the restroom. "Sharon's coming with me. We are going to have a nice little chat about Bill. Bill is very nice and you guys need to leave him alone" Missy said as she started walking with Sharon in front of her. Andy kept his gun still on Missy as they moved. "Hey guys! Out here!" Andy yelled hoping someone would hear him from the office. Andy caught Sharon's eyes. The knife was digging into her throat now and he could see little trickles of blood slowly forming on her neck. The door to the Murder Room opened as Julio and Mike came out and saw the scene before them. They both drew their weapons as well. "Missy, there's no good way out of here. Drop the knife and let go of Sharon and then we can talk" Andy said to Missy and he hoped he would get through to her. Missy saw the other two detectives show up. She continued to walk backwards down the hallway towards the break room. The hallway was clear of any bystanders. "Put your weapons down, otherwise I will slit her throat" Missy said to them. "I can't do that Missy" Andy said to her. He looked at Sharon and nodded slightly to her. She nodded slightly back, acknowledging whatever plan Andy had.

"Do you have a shot?" Andy said to Julio and Mike. "I have it" Julio said. Missy moved with Sharon. "You don't have anything!" she yelled at them. That made her in perfect view for Andy to take the shot and he pulled the trigger. Missy fell backwards onto the floor and Sharon lurched forward. Andy gathered Sharon in his arms and looked her over. Her neck was bleeding from where the knife dug into her throat. He placed his handkerchief on her throat to stop the bleeding. Julio went over to Missy who was on the floor now and checked her pulse. He knew she was dead but he had to check anyways. "Let's move her to the breakroom" Mike said to Andy and helped him walk with Sharon to the breakroom. Sharon had a seat as Andy kept pressure on her neck. "Let me see" Mike said to Andy as Andy moved the handkerchief from her neck. "You're probably going to need stitches" Mike said as he got up and headed back to the office. "I'll call an ambulance and let everyone know" he said to Andy. Andy looked at Sharon's arm and the cut seemed to be very minor as the bleeding had already stopped.

Andy knelt in front of Sharon now as everyone came rushing to the hallway. Provenza came inside the room. "Are you okay?" he asked both of them. He saw Andy applying pressure to Sharon's neck. "She had a knife" Andy said to Provenza as he concentrated on Sharon. "I shot her" he added. Sharon sat there, still in shock as she looked at Andy. Mike came back in with his medical bag and placed an ointment on Sharon's neck. "This is going to sting but should help" Mike said to Sharon. "Thank you" Sharon mumbled. Mike also took some gauze out and dressed her wound on her arm. "Ambulance is on its way" Mike said as he stood up and spoke to Provenza. Chief Howard overlooked the area and saw them in the breakroom. "Is everybody okay in here?" he asked. "Yes" Provenza answered. "The Captain had a knife to her throat and is bleeding from it, but it is under control" he added as he moved him away from the scene. "So much for that detail on her" Chief Howard mumbled but Sharon heard him say it. "What detail?" Sharon said quietly and looked at Andy who was still sitting in front of her. "Don't worry about it" he said to her and she gave him a look. "I'll tell you later" he said back to her and then looked at both Provenza and the Chief. "Captain, we will find out how Missy got in here and why she wasn't followed" Provenza reassured her. They both walked out and Andy turned his attention back to Sharon.

"I was scared there for a minute" he confessed to her. "Me too" she confessed to him. The paramedics came and took a look at Sharon's wound on her neck. It was still bleeding but not as bad as when it first happened. One of the paramedics looked at her wound while the other one took her vitals. "You are going to need stitches, ma'am and probably a Tetanus shot as well" he said to her as he dressed the wound. The paramedics then took Sharon and Andy followed them. "Tell FID they can find me at the hospital" Andy said to Provenza. Andy then handed Provenza his gun, for FID. They headed to the elevators. "Not a problem, Flynn. Mike and I will follow you there" Provenza said back to him as the doors closed in the elevator. Andy glanced down at Sharon who had her eyes closed as the Paramedics stood across from them in the elevator.

They made their way towards the ambulance and got inside the back area where Sharon sat down on the gurney. Andy sat across from her. The paramedic was attending to her as Andy looked on and watched. It was not too long ago that Andy was the one lying on the gurney while the paramedics attended to him as Sharon watched. The bleeding managed to stop when they had got to the ambulance. The ambulance took off and headed to the hospital. Andy leaned forward and took hold of Sharon's hand. "I'll notify the kids when we get to the hospital" he told her. "No, I don't want to worry anyone" Sharon said. "Besides, this is nothing" she added as she pointed in the vicinity of her wounds, as the paramedic redressed them with gauze. Andy just looked back at her.

They arrived at the ER and the paramedics assisted Sharon out of the ambulance and walked with her inside. Andy followed right behind them. A nurse came up to them and took Sharon over to the triage area to assess her condition and Andy went with her. Sharon had a seat while the nurse took her vitals and information. The nurse then unwrapped the blood stained gauze from her neck to see the wound. Sharon winced a little as the nurse did that and she squeezed Andy's hand. Andy looked at Sharon and gave her a reassuring smile. "Looks like you will need some stitches to help this heal properly" the nurse said. Then the nurse turned her attention to Sharon's arm. "This one is not bad at all" the nurse said as she cleaned it with antiseptic spray and dressed it again with clean gauze. "When was the last time you had a Tetanus shot?" the nurse asked Sharon as she stood up. "Oh, um at least ten years ago" Sharon said to her. "We'll give you one of those too, just as a precaution" the nurse told them. "Okay, follow me and I will take you to another room where we will stitch you up" the nurse said. Andy held out his hand for Sharon to grab as she stood up and they followed the nurse.

The nurse brought them to the room and they waited for the Physician's assistant to come in. Andy looked at Sharon. She seemed distant. While they were waiting, Provenza texted Andy that he and Mike were outside in the waiting area along with Sergeant Staples from FID. Andy groaned as he looked at his phone. "Provenza and Mike are waiting outside along with FID" Andy said to Sharon as he looked at her. "Andy, please behave yourself, they will clear you, just let them do their job" Sharon said to him as she gave him a warm smile.

The Physician's Assistant knocked on the door frame before she walked in and introduced herself to Sharon and Andy. "Hello, my name is Anne and I'm the PA on duty today" she said as she sat in front of Sharon. She placed her gloved hands on Sharon's neck to look at her wound. "Let's take a look" she said as she moved a couple of lights to shine down at Sharon's neck. Sharon winced again and grabbed Andy's hand. "Are you uncomfortable or in pain?" she asked Sharon. "A little, like it's pinching me" Sharon said to her. "Okay, before I stitch you up, I will place some freezing spray on your neck to numb the area, so you won't feel anything there" she said to Sharon. "But, first I am going to give you a Tetanus shot in your arm" she added. "Will there be a scar?" Sharon asked her. "No, the stitches are dissolvable over time so there won't be a scar" she answered. "Just like mine were honey" Andy said to Sharon in a quieter voice as the PA prepared her tools. "Ready?" Anne asked Sharon. Sharon nodded as Anne gave her the shot in her arm. She then picked up a spray bottle and sprayed the area of her neck to numb it. "This is a numbing spray and will feel cool" she reminded Sharon. "Yep, that's cold" Sharon said to her. "Ok, I want you to lie down now, and I'm going to close up that wound of yours" Anne said as she helped Sharon lie down on the gurney.

Andy stood by Sharon and watched as the PA stitched up her neck then placed a non-stick piece of gauze in that area to cover it up. "There, you are all set. The numbing spray should wear off in about an hour. You may feel like it's pinching there but that is normal. If you notice any pink or puffiness in that area, call your doctor. Otherwise you are all set" Anne said to Sharon and Andy and then left the room. Andy helped Sharon sit up and he placed his hands on her shoulder. "Sharon?" Andy said to her. "I'm fine" she said to him as she hesitated but then stood up. "Andy, FID is going to ask you why you shot Missy" Sharon said to him as she placed her hand on his cheek. Andy wondered where she was going with this as he has been through FID questions many times before. "They are going to ask you if you were protecting your wife or your Captain" she said to him quietly. He continued to look at her and nodded. He gathered her belongings and they made their way out to the waiting room. Provenza and Mike were sitting down and as they saw Andy and Sharon come out of the ER, they both stood up. "Captain" Provenza said to her. "Lieutenant" Sharon said to Provenza. "Lieutenant Flynn" Sergeant Staples said as he made his way closer to the group. "Oh geeze" Andy muttered under his breath but Sharon heard him.

"Sergeant Staples" Andy said to him as he approached them. "Lieutenant, Captain" Sergeant Staples said to both Andy and Sharon. "Lieutenant, I need to get your statement" Staples said to Andy. Andy looked at Sharon. "Go with him" she said to him, reassuring him like a small child. "This will only take a minute and then you can go back with them" Staples said to Andy. "Look, if you don't want to wait, Provenza can take you back to the office now and I can get a ride" Andy said to Sharon. Sharon shook her head. "I'll wait for you" Sharon said and then Andy walked over to a table and chairs where Staples was sitting down now.

TBC


	14. Chapter 14

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 14

Sharon sat on a chair in the waiting area while Andy went with Sergeant Staples. Provenza sat down next to her. "Captain, I sent Julio, Amy, and Buzz to Missy's apartment, they are meeting SIS there to conduct a search" Provenza stated to Sharon. "Okay" Sharon said back to him as she leaned back in her chair. Provenza looked at her. "Are you sure you don't want to head back, Captain? You and I both know how long FID could take in this matter, perhaps you could go back to the office with Mike and I'll wait for Flynn" Provenza said gently to her. Sharon shook her head no, and winced while she did that. Provenza let her be as they waited for Andy to be finished with Sergeant Staples. Julio called Provenza's cell phone and he answered it as he sat next to Sharon. "Yes Julio" he said.

"Sir, we are here at Missy's apartment and there's some crazy stuff here" Julio said to Provenza over the phone as he looked back at the wall that was covered with photos. "There's evidence here that Missy was following the Captain, sir" he added. "Is Buzz filming all of it?" Provenza said as he looked at Sharon. "Yes sir" Julio said. "Oh, and we found another note that she wrote, but never sent out" Julio stated to Provenza. "Okay, collect everything there and bring it back to the office" Provenza said to him. "Yes sir" Julio said as he hung up. "She was pretty sick" Julio said to Amy who was placing all the photos into an evidence bag. "I think that's just the tip of it" Amy said back to him as Buzz was still filming the room.

"Okay, Lieutenant, I just have a few questions on the shooting incident" Sergeant Staples said to Andy as he moved some papers around. "I heard Lieutenant Tao and Detective Sanchez's accounts of the shooting and now I need to hear yours since you were the officer that shot Missy Braxton" Sergeant Staples said. "When did you first encounter Missy?" he asked Andy. Andy flashed back to when he opened the bathroom door and saw Sharon with a knife at her throat. "I had called out to the Captain, asking her if she was alright inside the bathroom and she said no" Andy started to tell him before the Sergeant interrupted him. "Do you make it a habit of standing outside bathrooms, Lieutenant?" he asked Andy. "When there's a threat to my Captain, yes." Andy said as he was slightly agitated. "Go on" Staples said to him. "I opened the door and saw Missy standing behind Sharon holding a knife to her throat. I immediately drew my weapon and pointed it at Missy, telling her to drop her weapon" Andy said to Staples. "And what did she do at this point?" Staples asked him. "She kept holding Sharon and the knife to her throat as she started to move them forwards out of the bathroom. She said that her and Sharon were going to have a talk" Andy said to him. "A talk about what?" Staples asked. "Bill Croelick, a suspect from previous incidents" Andy said back to him. "At this point as you were talking to Missy, did anyone else come to assist you?" Staples asked. "I yelled towards the office door for someone to help and Mike and Julio came out of the office and were on site" Andy said back to Staples.

"Then what happened?" Staples asked him. "We moved further into the hallway, which was clear. I asked Julio or Mike if they had a shot. Julio said yes and Missy turned her along with Sharon towards Julio. The shot opened up for me so I took it" Andy said to him. Staples was writing this all down on his notepad. Sharon's face flashed in Andy's mind right before he shot Missy. "Lieutenant?" Staples said trying to get Andy's attention. "Lieutenant?" he said again. Andy looked at Staples. "I'm sorry, what where you asking?" Andy said to him. "Was shooting her your only option?" Staples asked him. "Yes, I tried giving her commands but she wasn't complying, she had a knife pressed up into the Captain's throat, and I wasn't going to risk harm to the Captain any more than she already had so, yes, shooting Missy was the only option" Andy said to Staples. "Was the knife pressed up into the Captain's throat or your wife's throat?" Staples added one more question. "Both" Andy answered him and then leaned back against the chair. "Are we done here, because I really need to get back to the Captain and head back to the office" Andy asked him. Staples looked at Andy and then at his notes. "Yes, thank you for your cooperation, Lieutenant. You know the drill, you need to meet with Behavioral Sciences before you can return to active duty. And, you will get your weapon back as soon as we are done with the investigation" Staples said to Andy as they both stood up. Staples held out his hand to shake Andy's hand. Andy hesitated but shook his hand.

Andy returned back to where Sharon, Provenza, and Mike were waiting. "How did it go?" Sharon asked Andy. Andy looked back at where Staples still was at the table and then looked at Sharon. "Fine" he said back to her. "Are you ready to go?" Andy asked her. She nodded her head and all four of them left the hospital. Sharon and Andy sat in the back seat of the car that Provenza and Mike were in. Sharon leaned her head on Andy's shoulder as Provenza drove them back to the PAB. "When we get back, why don't I take you home, you can relax there and" Andy started to say to Sharon before she interrupted him. "No, I want to know what exactly happened, and about the detail that was mentioned earlier by Chief Howard" Sharon said to him.

They arrived back at the office. Sharon headed into her office and closed the door behind her leaving Andy wondering if she was going to shut him out. Andy then made his way towards his desk and picked up his phone to call Behavioral Sciences and made an appointment with them. Chief Howard walked into the Murder Room and headed for Sharon's office. He stopped at Andy's desk. "Good work Lieutenant. You kept things in control. It could have been a lot worse" Howard said to Andy. Andy looked back at the Chief and nodded. He was tired of that saying 'it could have been a lot worse'. Of course he knew that! Sharon could have been killed by that crazy Missy. He wanted to say that but instead, he just nodded and the Chief walked into Sharon's office.

"Captain, how are you feeling?" Chief Howard asked her as he sat down in front of her desk. "Lucky to be alive" Sharon quietly said to him. "What can I do for you Chief?" Sharon asked him. "Is your team back from Missy's apartment?" Chief Howard said. "No, I believe they are still there. Lieutenant Provenza knows more about that" Sharon said to him. "I am going to sit down and have a meeting with Lieutenant Cooper to discuss where the break down on the surveillance occurred" Chief Howard said to her. Sharon looked across her desk at him. "You were hurt under my watch and I am going to find out what exactly happened" he continued to say to her. "I don't want this to be dragged into an inquiry. People slip their tails all the time, you know that Chief" Sharon said back to him. "I just want to move forward. Thanksgiving is on Thursday and we are moving to the new house tomorrow" Sharon started to say to him as she looked up and saw Julio, Amy, and Buzz return along with Lieutenant Cooper.

Sharon got up from her seat and headed towards the door. "Anything else, Chief?" she said back to him as he was still sitting. "I am glad that you are okay, Sharon" Chief Howard said as he got up and followed her out of her office. Sharon joined Andy and the others at Julio's desk where they gathered to see all of the evidence that was brought in from Missy's apartment. "Ma'am, this Missy was watching you for a couple of days" Julio said to her as he handed some photos to Sharon. They were of her, Matthew, and Andy at the park they took Matthew to. That brought a chill to Sharon's spine. Sharon cleared her throat. "Did you find anything else, Detective?" she asked Julio. "Yes, this letter that she never sent out" Julio said as he handed her the letter. Andy was looking at the pictures and then saw all of the prescription bottles in Missy's name that Amy started placing on the desk. "All of these were her prescription medications?" Andy asked. "Yep, all in her name" Amy said back to him.

Sharon looked at the letter and placed her hand on her mouth as she couldn't believe the words she was reading. In Missy's mind, she thought Sharon posed a threat to her and Bill's happiness so she had to get rid of Sharon. She couldn't have another LAPD officer bring Bill's good name and drag it in the ground, according to the letter. Andy looked at Sharon. He could tell she was shaking trying to read that letter and stood up by her and laid his hand on her arm, reassuring her. Sharon shook her head as she handed the letter to Andy and then walked back to her office. Andy watched her and then read the letter himself. He looked up at Provenza and handed the letter to him. Provenza read it, looked back at Andy, and then sat down. This particular letter was more graphic than the ones that Croelick had brought them the other day.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Cooper saw Sharon go back into her office and he knocked on her door. "Come in" she said clearing her throat. "Sorry to bother you Captain, but I just wanted to apologize for the slip this morning" Cooper said to her. "We had her at her apartment early this morning, and then she must have slipped out back" Cooper added. "It happens, Lieutenant" Sharon said back to him. He could tell Sharon was still a little bit shaken up and decided that it was best to leave her office. He nodded at Sharon and then left, heading out to where Chief Howard was at. "I heard you wanted to see me" Cooper said to Chief Howard. "Yes, let's go to my office" Chief Howard said to him and then they walked out of the Murder Room.

An hour later, Andy knocked on her office door. "Come in" Sharon said in a quiet voice. Andy walked in and closed the door behind him. He walked over to where she was sitting at her desk and leaned up on it. He held out his hand and she took it in hers. "How are you doing?" he asked her. "I'm okay, Andy" she said to him. "When are you seeing Behavioral Sciences?" she asked him. He glanced at his watch. "In about an hour" he answered her. "I just wanted to check on you before I went" Andy said to her as he looked down at her sitting at her desk. "I'm fine, really" she said. He gave her a worried look. "Sharon, that letter contained threats and those pictures, as much as I hate to say this, I guess Croelick was right, she was at the park watching us" Andy said to her in a soft voice. She looked at him for a while. She was also concerned about him. "Are you going to go to a meeting tonight?" Sharon asked him quietly. "Yes, but I want to make sure I get you and everyone else home and safe before I go to one tonight" Andy said to her.

The hour had come and Andy found himself standing outside the Behavioral Sciences office. He hated seeing them but it was mandatory after an officer involved shooting in order to be released back to duty. He walked in and told the person at the desk he had an appointment. She told him to take a seat and they would be with him shortly. Andy waited and was looking at all the picture frames on the wall, it looked like they were from an art gallery. The counselor came out and called Andy's name. He followed her into a smaller office and had a seat in there. "So, Lieutenant, I understand you were involved in a shooting earlier this morning" she said to him. "Yes" Andy said. "Tell me about it" she said to him. Andy looked back at the counselor and took a deep breath.

"My division had caught a case last week about arson fires. We investigated them and it brought back an arsonist from my past, Croelick. He decided to show up at the PAB one day and somehow we thought he was involved. It turned out it was his crazy ex-girlfriend and we arrested her for the arson. I thought everything would settle down, but it picked up. My Captain's building had a small fire started in her basement and we suspected Croelick for it and decided to look into it further" Andy started to say as the counselor listened to him talk. "Anyways long story short, turns out this Missy Braxton was the one that was going after the Captain" Andy said to her. "The Captain, Lieutenant, who happens to be your wife" she said to him. He looked up at her sitting across from him. "Yes, she's my wife. What does that have to do with anything?" Andy said back to her. "It's a fact, Lieutenant, that's all" she said. "I had placed a detail on her to follow and track her every move but something happened this morning and she slipped through the detail and came into the PAB. The Captain informed me that she was going to use the bathroom and I went with her and stood outside due to the threatening letters Croelick brought to our attention" Andy said as he had a flashback to this morning.

"I knocked on the door because I was wondering what was taking so long and asked her if everything was alright. Sharon said no and then I opened the door to see Missy standing there with a knife to the Captain's throat so I drew my weapon and pointed it at Missy. I gave her verbal commands to drop the weapon and to let the Captain go but she wasn't listening and the knife kept digging further into Sharon's neck. I called for help hoping one of the guys would hear me in our office and then when they came out, we moved further into the hallway, which was clear. I asked Julio or Mike if they had a shot. Julio said yes and Missy turned herself along with Sharon towards Julio. The shot opened up for me so I took it" Andy said to her. "You referred to the Captain as Sharon three times, Lieutenant" she started to say to him. "Yeah, so" he said as he shrugged his shoulders. "I just want to be sure that you are not affected by this shooting Lieutenant. I mean, essentially your wife was held hostage in front of you. You shot the person who was holding your wife. I needed you to differentiate between the Captain and your wife, Sharon" she said to him. "Watching a loved one being in danger is a difficult thing to do, and you had to do it not once, but three times in the past couple of months" she continued. Andy looked at her with a confused look on his face. "Dwight Darnell shooting, the Philip Stroh incident, and now Missy Braxton shooting" she said back to Andy. Andy stared at her. "It can be very difficult and can mess with a lot in our heads" she concluded to him. Andy nodded back to her.

An hour later, Andy walked back into the Murder Room, cleared by Behavioral Sciences but still waiting for FID. There was no one in the office at that moment. Andy made his way over to the video room where he saw Sharon there sitting down at the table. Everyone else was there as well. Buzz was setting up the camera footage from this morning of the PAB lobby to see how Missy was able to walk right in, so to speak. Andy came in and sat next to Sharon. Sharon gave him a look and Andy nodded and gave her a smile. Everyone then turned their attention to the screens in front of them and watched the video footage. "Okay, that's Missy walking in with a group of people" Julio pointed out to them as they watched it. "If everyone has to go through the metal detector to get through, then how was Missy able to bring a knife in?" Amy asked the group. "Captain, Missy gets in line here and then look what happens. She goes through but nothing goes off and she walks over to the directory board" Buzz said. "So where did she get the knife from?" Andy said. The footage then shows Missy heading into an elevator. She steps out on their floor and looks around. She pulls out the knife she used on Sharon. Someone comes down the hallway and they see Missy duck into the bathroom.

"So, when Missy stepped out of the elevator she proceeds to the hallway where our office is but then is spooked by someone walking down the hallway and ducks into the bathroom" Provenza said. "Where I encounter her a couple of minutes later" Sharon added. "So, she was able to somehow get the knife through security" Sharon said as she looked back at the screen. "Chief Howard informed me earlier that he is going to be inquiring as to how this happened. Buzz I would like for you to give this footage to him so that he can proceed. Thank you everyone" Sharon said as she got up and proceed down the hallway back to her office. Andy stood up and wanted to follow Sharon but Provenza stopped and asked him about his meeting with the shrink. "So, how did it go?" he asked him. "Fine, just waiting to be cleared by FID now" Andy said and then continued to walk towards Sharon's office.

Andy joined Sharon just as she walked through her office door. He followed her in and sat down in one of the chairs in front of her desk. "So, Behavioral Sciences cleared you?" she asked him as she looked at some papers on her desk. "Yes, they did. I'm just waiting for your friends down at FID to do the same" Andy said to her. "Look, Sharon, I" Andy said but was interrupted by Sharon. "I was thinking that we should head home. Matthew is going to be released from school soon and it would be nice to pick him up on time" Sharon said to Andy. Andy was going to suggest the same thing but Sharon had beaten him to the punch. "I was going to suggest that" Andy said to her and smiled. "We need to tell our kids too Sharon, both Rusty and Matthew are going to see your bandage there and ask questions" he added. "I know, I just want to be cautious with Matthew when we tell him" she said. Sharon's phone rang and she answered it. "Yes Sergeant, he's right here" she said as she handed the phone to Andy. "It's Staples" she said to him. Andy spoke into the phone and nodded to whatever Staples was telling him. "Thank you" he said as he hung up. "They cleared me" he said to Sharon. "He said that he will be up here in about ten minutes, so after that we can go" Andy said to her. "Can you tell Lieutenant Provenza what we are going to do" Sharon asked Andy. "Sure" Andy said, nodded back to her and then stood up. He was still worried about her but was glad she suggested leaving early.

Andy spoke to Provenza that they were leaving and he was taking Sharon home. "It's about time" Provenza said to him as he glanced back at Sharon's office. Sergeant Staples came in and handed Andy his gun back. Sharon told the team to have a good night and not to stay too late working paperwork. "Remember, both Andy and I are off tomorrow for the move. I expect you to call me if anything comes up, Lieutenant" Sharon said to Provenza. Sharon then turned to everyone. "I expect all of you to come over to our new house for Thanksgiving, you don't have to stay long but it would be nice to see all of you" Sharon said and then her and Andy left. "What's up, sir?" Julio said to Provenza as he looked at the Lieutenant who's face turned with worry. "I'm just worried about the Captain, but don't tell anyone I said that" Provenza said as he pointed at Julio.

They made their way down to their car and headed over to Matthew's school. As they drove over to the school, Andy glanced over at Sharon who placed her hand on top of his on the gear shift. Andy smiled. "If you want to talk about the shooting, we can Sharon" Andy said to her as the car turned the corner. Sharon took a deep breath and thought about what Andy had said. "You didn't hesitate" Sharon said quietly. They pulled up to a red light. Andy looked at her but Sharon kept looking forward. "You didn't hesitate when you shot her. What was going through your mind?" Sharon said to him. Andy looked back at the road as the light turned green and continued to drive. "I wasn't going to lose you" Andy answered Sharon. "If I couldn't get her to drop her weapon and let go of you, I knew I would have to take her out" he added. They pulled up to the school and parked behind all of the other cars that were waiting.

Sharon shifted in her seat and turned her body towards him. He faced her and placed his hand on her cheek. "What was going through your mind, Sharon?" Andy quietly asked her. She looked into his brown eyes. "I was scared. We've been given so much, I knew it couldn't end right there" Sharon said to him. She leaned further in to him and kissed him. "You saved my life. You keep saving my life" Sharon whispered to him as they pulled apart. "You're worth saving" Andy said as he smiled at her. Just then, the school doors opened and the children started to come outside. Sharon turned around to open the car door and then stepped out of the car and walked closer to the door so Matthew could see her. Sharon had called the school to let them know that Matthew wouldn't be needing after school care. Matthew walked out of school and saw Sharon standing by their car. He had a big smile on his face as he came up to her. "Hi!" Matthew said as he walked up to her and gave her a hug. "Hi sweetie, how was school?" Sharon asked him. "Better, we learned about a new animal today, about Thanksgiving. And I asked my teacher if I could write about you and Andy and she said yes" Matthew said as they walked towards the car where Andy was at. "Well, that's good" Sharon said to him as they opened the car door. "And did you know there is no school for three days?" Matthew added as he climbed into his seat. "Hi Matthew" Andy said to the kid as he watched him climb in. "Hi Andy" Matthew said back to him.

Andy then drove over to pick Moxie up from the Doggie Day Care place and Moxie walked out and jumped in the car. "So what animal did you learn about today?" Sharon asked Matthew as Andy got back in the car. "The turkey" Matthew said as he petted Moxie. They headed back home to the condo. "Do you have work tomorrow?" Matthew asked them. "No, sweetie, Andy and I are both off tomorrow because we are moving into the new house tomorrow" Sharon said to him as they got out of the car and headed towards the elevator. "Ah, I get my own room tomorrow!" Matthew said to them excitedly. They all stepped in the elevator and headed up to the 11th floor. As they approached the condo door, they noticed a note in a white envelope attached to the door. Andy looked over at Sharon who was busy with Matthew at the moment. Sharon noticed Andy looking at the door and she stopped too. Andy pulled the envelope off of the door and then looked at Sharon. Sharon stopped Matthew and pulled him with her to the side while Andy opened the front door. Andy went inside with Moxie and checked out their place, it was clear. Then he went back to the front door and Sharon and Matthew came inside. Sharon looked at Andy who closed the door. Matthew and Moxie ran off to the living room. "Is that what I think it is?" Sharon asked Andy quietly. He opened the letter and started to read it. "Son of a" Andy mumbled but caught his words before he said anything in front of Matthew.

The letter was from Croelick. It read: _Dear Sharon, I told you Missy had a few loose ends and that she wanted to hurt you. I was sorry to hear what had happened this morning at your office. I'm also sorry you had to get hurt. Luckily, Andy saved the day. Good ole Andy, never leaving your side. Well, it's time for me to head back. Don't miss me. Bill._ "You know what? I'm tired of Croelick ruining our evenings" Sharon said to Andy as she grabbed the letter and ripped it up. She then proceeded to the kitchen and threw the letter away. Andy followed her and started to make dinner for everyone.

The evening proved to be a quiet one and Sharon needed that. Rusty came home and had dinner with them, then he went out to the library to work on some school project he had. After Sharon and Andy had cleaned up the kitchen from dinner, Andy left to attend his meeting. That left Sharon and Matthew at the condo. "Do you have any homework, Matthew?" Sharon asked him as she sat on the couch with him. Moxie was lying on the blanket on the floor. "No, we did it all in school today" Matthew answered her. "Well, that's good to hear" Sharon said to him. Matthew looked at Sharon and noticed her bandage on her neck. "What happened here?" Matthew said as he pointed to the bandage. Sharon debated earlier on whether or not to let Matthew know what had happened. She wasn't sure how he would take it. "I was injured on the job this morning" she told Matthew. "Oh, no!" Matthew said to her. "What happened?" Matthew said to her. "I got cut and Andy stepped in and rescued me" Sharon said back to him.

Two hours later when Andy came home, he saw Sharon and Matthew on the couch. Matthew was asleep and he had tucked himself into Sharon's side. Sharon was listening to some classical music. Andy walked over to her on the couch and bent down to kiss her. "How was your meeting?" she asked him. "Good" he said as he looked at Matthew. "He's been out for an hour now" Sharon said. "Can I blame him? He's got the best place right now, cuddled next to you" Andy said to Sharon and kissed her on her lips. She smiled at him. "I'll tell you what. Let me take Matthew and put him to bed and then I'll take his spot on the couch, you don't even have to move, honey" Andy said to Sharon as he went over to wake Matthew up. Andy and Matthew walked back to where Rusty's room was and he tucked Matthew in bed. "You rescued Sharon today" Matthew said to Andy as he gave a big yawn. Andy looked back at him. "Yes, I did" Andy said back to Mathew. "You're really brave Andy" Matthew said as he saluted him and then fell asleep. Andy smiled and then headed out of the room, closing the door behind him. He then made his way back to Sharon and the couch and settled nicely into Sharon's side. Sharon was stroking Andy's hair with her hand and Andy laid up against Sharon's side.

Andy was starting to get tired as he lay there on the couch enjoying Sharon's touch. "Before we both fall asleep out here on the couch, let's get up and go to bed" Andy whispered in Sharon's ear. Andy got up and took Sharon by her hand. They went towards their bedroom and Moxie followed them. Moxie went to go sleep with Matthew and Sharon and Andy headed in to their room. Sharon took off her bandage on her arm and redressed it with a new, fresh gauze. Andy looked at her neck, put some ointment on it that they had gotten from the doctor, and re-covered it with a new bandage. They both got ready for bed and then settled down nicely with one another on the bed. Andy held Sharon close to him. "I love you" Andy said to Sharon. "I love you too" Sharon smiled saying to Andy. "Tomorrow's a big day for us, especially you" Andy said to Sharon as she was falling asleep. "Hmm, moving day" she said to him, smiling. "Get some sleep" he whispered in her ear. He felt her starting to relax and he did the same.

TBC


	15. Chapter 15

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** It's moving day for everybody! Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews. I really appreciate it.

Chapter 15

Andy glanced at the clock that was on the night stand. It was 3:30 in the morning. He had been up for two hours now and couldn't fall back asleep. He didn't want to disturb Sharon because she was sound asleep, snuggled on her side, with one hand on Andy's chest and her right leg in between his legs. His right arm was around her back and his other hand was on top of hers on his chest. He was glad she was sleeping as he thought that she might not get a good night's rest with everything that had happened at work. 'Were they ever going to catch a break?' he thought to himself. Sharon moved slightly as Andy laid there but then settled her head back on his shoulder. He felt her relax. 'Maybe if I count sheep that will help' he thought to himself. But that didn't work and he found himself more awake than usual.

Andy gently pried himself from Sharon and slowly got out of bed without disturbing her. He put his t-shirt back on and walked out of their bedroom, with his t-shirt and pajama pants on. He slowly opened the door where Matthew and Moxie were and checked on them. They were both sleeping and he closed the door. He headed towards the kitchen making sure he didn't disturb Rusty who was sleeping on the couch. He had come home late and had texted Andy when he left the library so they would know he was on his way back home. Andy opened up the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of cranberry juice. He then glanced around the kitchen making sure that every box that they had packed earlier was all set to be moved. Andy then sat down at the kitchen table and thought about everything that happened this past year.

"Hey" Sharon whispered as she made her presence known to Andy. She walked over to the table and sat down next to him. "Can't sleep?" she whispered to him. "No" he whispered back to her and finished his cranberry juice. Sharon stretched her arms out on the table over Andy's and grabbed his hands. She gently caressed his hands in her own hands. With just that gesture, Andy forgot about all the things that were keeping him awake and started to relax. "Are you okay?" Sharon whispered. "Yes, definitely doing okay now" Andy whispered back with a smile on his face. She leaned in and kissed him on his lips. "Let's go back to bed" she said to him and got up, leading him with her, walking back to their bedroom. This time when they got into bed, it was Sharon who held Andy close to her as they settled back. They both fell instantly back asleep.

Sharon's alarm went off early that morning as the movers were coming at 8:00 to start the moving process. Sharon woke up to Andy looking at her. "Do you know how beautiful you are?" he said to her as he leaned in for a kiss. She smiled and kissed him back. "Hmm, no but I do like you reminding me" she said to him. Andy made his way along her cheek, kissing every spot as he made his way down to her neck, over her bandage as gently as he could be, and then over to her collar bone. Andy stopped there because they both heard the bathroom door close and knew one of the boys was up. "I can't wait to have our own bathroom so no one can interrupt us" Andy said to Sharon as he started to move away from her and get out of bed. Sharon missed him already and she followed and got out of bed herself. "Yes, I can't wait either" she said to him as she made her way to the chair that had her clothes she had left out before packing up her closet. "So, the movers are going to come here first and move all of the furniture and boxes to the new house, then they are going to go to my storage place and move everything there" Andy said to Sharon as she got dressed in their room. "Sounds good" Sharon said. "Also, we should be getting a delivery there this afternoon, a kid's bed frame, dressers, and a mattress for Matthew" she added. Andy walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "When did you order that?" Andy asked. "About a week ago, Matthew picked it out" Sharon said.

Everyone else was up by the time Sharon and Andy made it to the kitchen, dressed and ready for the movers to come. Rusty noticed the bandage on Sharon's neck and almost freaked out. "What's that?" he said as he pointed to her neck. Sharon covered the bandage with her hand but before she could say anything, Andy stepped in. "Something happened yesterday at work and she got cut" Andy said to Rusty, and then looked at Matthew. Rusty moved out of the kitchen and Andy followed him, away from Matthew. "Look, Sharon got hurt yesterday, but we don't want to freak Matthew out, okay?" Andy whispered to Rusty and he understood.

At 8:00 sharp there was a knock on the condo door. Andy went over at looked at the peep hole before opening the door. He saw it was the movers and opened the door. The movers came in and started wrapping up the heavy furniture and moved the boxes downstairs to the moving truck. When the movers finished moving all of the items down to the moving truck, Andy told them that he would meet them at his storage space and gave them the address. Andy then turned to Sharon who was looking out the French doors. Rusty and Matthew were waiting in the kitchen with Moxie. Andy looked at the boys and then walked over to where Sharon was standing. He placed his arm around her. "This place looks empty now" she said to him. "Yes, it does but I can't wait to put everything in our new place" he said to her and smiled. She smiled back at him. They all headed out of the condo and Sharon locked up behind them. The closing of the condo was next week Wednesday and she would be meeting with the lawyer and relator then.

They made their way downstairs to their cars. Matthew went with Sharon to the new house in her car. Rusty drove his own car to their new house and Andy drove his car to the storage place to meet with the movers. About an hour later, the movers arrived at the new house and started to unload the truck. As they brought the pieces in to the new house, they took direction from Sharon who would tell them where to place everything. The boxes of books and all of their office stuff would go in the den. All of the kitchen boxes made their way into the new kitchen. The living room furniture from the condo and Andy's storage made its way into the living room and family room. All of Sharon's bedroom furniture made their way upstairs into the master bedroom. Every box that belonged to Rusty and his furniture made its way to the apartment above the garage. Once all of the furniture and boxes were inside from the moving truck, Sharon gave them the check for the costs and they left.

Andy then turned to Sharon as she closed the front door and gave her a hug. She pulled him in for a kiss. "Hmm, I'm going to start unpacking the kitchen" she said to him as she pulled away. "I'm going to go check on the boys outside" Andy said back to her. Andy made his way out to the backyard to check on Matthew, Rusty, and Moxie. Rusty was watching the boy play with Moxie in the yard. "Everything okay out here?" Andy asked Rusty. "Yep, everything is fine" Rusty said as he threw the ball back to Matthew. Andy motioned for Rusty to come over to where he was at and he did. Matthew and Moxie continued to play without him. "So, Matthew says you're a hero" Rusty said to Andy. Andy looked back at Matthew and then at Rusty. "Yeah, well the kid came up with that last night. Look, that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about" Andy said as he scratched the top of his head with his finger. Rusty looked back at Andy. "You know those letters that Bill Croelick brought to us, about the one's threatening your mother" Andy said and Rusty nodded. "Well, Missy showed up yesterday morning at the PAB and held Sharon hostage with a knife" Andy said quietly so Matthew didn't hear him. "Oh my gosh" Rusty said quietly. "What happened?" he asked Andy. "I shot Missy and killed her" Andy said as Rusty looked at him. "We took Sharon to the hospital to get stitched up and she didn't want to alarm you or the other kids that we were there" Andy said. Rusty looked at Matthew who was still chasing Moxie in the yard and then he looked back at Andy. "You know, Matthew is right. You are a hero" Rusty said to Andy and held out his hand for Andy to shake, which he did. "Thanks kid" Andy said.

Rusty went up to his apartment above the garage to sort out all of his belongings. "Hey Matthew, why don't you come inside now, you can help unpack some of the boxes" Andy said to Matthew as Matthew ran up to him. "Okay, did my new bedroom come yet?" he asked Andy as they made their way back in, with Moxie following them. "No, not yet" Andy said. Sharon was still unpacking the boxes in the kitchen when Andy and Matthew came back from outside. The doorbell rang and Moxie ran to the front door, barking to alert anyone who dared entered his new home. "Okay, Moxie, that's enough" Andy said to the dog and Moxie sat down while Andy looked outside. It was the delivery truck with Matthew's new bedroom furniture. Matthew was excited about his new bed. The deliverymen set up everything in Matthew's room and then left. Matthew had been upstairs with them and Andy watching them set up everything. He had a couple of boxes of his things that he started to unpack. Moxie was also up there laying down next to the new dresser.

Andy headed back downstairs to check on Sharon. She had all of the kitchen boxes unpacked and the items in the drawers. "I thought you were going to let me put some of the stuff the way I would like it to be?" Andy said as he looked through the drawers. "Yes, I know, but this way, I know where everything is at" Sharon said as she smiled at him standing by the sink. He pushed her up against the counter, careful with her arm, and gently caressed her sides with his hands. He then leaned in to kiss her but was quickly interrupted by Rusty coming in through the patio door. Andy groaned at being interrupted again. "You could knock, you know?" he said to Rusty as he pulled back from Sharon. "I'll be upstairs sorting through my clothes" Andy said and then made his way upstairs.

"I was hoping we could talk about what happened yesterday, if you want to" Rusty said to Sharon as he sat at the kitchen table. "There's nothing really to tell you, Rusty. A crazy woman attacked me and Andy had to shoot her, that's it" Sharon explained to him as she sat down. "Did you tell anyone else?" Rusty asked. "Do you mean, did I tell Emily, Ricky or Andy's children yet?" Sharon said. Rusty nodded. "No, we did not. I did not want to worry them yesterday morning so if it comes up tomorrow, then I will tell them" Sharon said to Rusty and then she got back up. "Did you unpack your stuff yet?" Sharon asked him. "Yes, all done" Rusty said. "Good, now you can help us unpack the boxes in the den" Sharon said with happiness. Rusty groaned and got up from the table. "And when you are done with that, you can start working on the boxes in the living room!" Sharon shouted to Rusty as he walked towards the den.

Sharon made her way upstairs and stopped in Matthew's room. "How is it going in here?" she asked Matthew as she saw him playing with some of his toys. "Good, but I can't get my bed made" Matthew said to Sharon. Sharon walked over to where his bed was set up and unfolded the sheets for his bed. "I can help you" she said as she started to make his bed. "Do you want to put the pillow cases on your pillows?" she asked him. "Okay" Matthew said as he walked over to the bed. As Sharon was making his bed, Moxie decided to get up and jump on the bed as Sharon was folding the covers over. Sharon just shook her head at the dog. Matthew then jumped on his bed and laid down. Sharon left his room and headed to the master bedroom. When she walked in, Andy was in the closet hanging up all of his suits. She joined him in there and started to sort her clothes out. Andy hung up his last tie and then walked over to Sharon on her side of the closet and wrapped his arms around her. He began kissing her neck and gently kissed her bandage, then making his way down like he did this morning. "I plan on christening every room in this house by making out with you in them" he said to her as he continued his way down her shoulders. Sharon smiled as she was enjoying this. "Every room except Matthew's and Rusty's I hope" she said to him and pulled his head back up to hers and kissed him on his lips. They enjoyed their little make out session without being interrupted this time.

Later on that evening, Rusty had gone out to get food for dinner and Sharon was setting the table. "Rusty did a good job unpacking everything in the den" Andy said as he walked into the kitchen. He stood by the island and watched Sharon set the table. He couldn't believe that they had actually moved in to this house together. Sharon looked up at Andy from across the room and smiled at him. He smiled back at her. Matthew came running down the stairs and Moxie followed him into the kitchen. "Hey buddy, slow down!" Andy said to the boy who ran passed him. "Rusty's here with the food. I saw him from the window of my bathroom" Matthew said as he sat at the table. Moxie was looking at Andy and was wagging his tail. Andy then fed Moxie his dinner. Rusty came in a couple of minutes later with the food for dinner and they all sat down to eat. "Is it okay if Gus comes over later on after he gets out of work?" Rusty asked Sharon. Sharon was surprised he had even asked that question as she looked at him. Andy cleared his throat. "Rusty, you have your own place now, he can come over whenever he wants to" Sharon said to him. "I know, but it's still technically your place, your rules, remember?" Rusty said back to her. "Hmm, yes about those rules, let's go over them, shall we?" Sharon said to him. "Rule number 1: No loud parties" Andy said. "Rule number 2: Paying rent" Sharon said. "Rule number 3: Keep the place clean" Andy said. Rusty looked at both of them as they continued to list the rules out for him staying at the apartment above the garage. "Rule number 10: Be safe" Sharon concluded. Rusty acknowledged all of the rules they laid out for him and he stood up. "On that note, I am heading back up there. Good night everyone!" Rusty said to them and then went through the patio door to his apartment above the garage.

"That's a lot of rules!" Matthew said to both Andy and Sharon as he was still sitting at the kitchen table. "You're right, Matthew. Those are a lot of rules for Rusty. And now, we need to go over some rules for you" Sharon said to him. Matthew looked like a deer caught in headlights when Sharon mentioned that to him. "This is a bigger place now than the condo, with a lot more things to get in trouble with" Sharon started to say to him. "The first rule is do not go into the swimming pool area without an adult with you" Andy said to Matthew. "That gate stays locked unless an adult opens it" he added. Matthew understood and nodded to Andy. "The second rule is you need to ask to go out into the backyard to play" Sharon said to Matthew and he nodded. "The third rule is wait for either myself, Sharon, or Rusty to open the front door if someone rings the doorbell" Andy said to him. "That's very important, Matthew" Andy concluded. "The fourth rule is always know where Moxie is at" Sharon added as she looked at the dog who was laying down on the new dog bed they had bought. "Do you think you can remember all of those rules?" Andy asked Matthew. "Yes" Matthew said excitedly as he got up and cleared his plate from the table. Sharon smiled at Matthew and knew this was going to be an adjustment for all of them but she had no doubt they were going to be just fine.

Andy took Matthew up to his new room later that night and got him settled into bed. Moxie followed them up there. "There, you are all set for bed now" he said to Matthew as he climbed into the bed and pulled the covers up. Matthew looked back at Andy who was sitting next to the bed on a new chair. "Will I be able to stay with you and Sharon forever?" Matthew asked Andy. Andy didn't know what had brought that question up as he looked back at Matthew. He didn't want to lie to the kid, after everything. "There's a good chance, more than likely, that you will be staying with us for a long time" Andy told him. Matthew smiled back at him and fell asleep.

Andy closed the door to his room and headed back downstairs to where Sharon was sitting in the family room. "I missed sitting on your couch after you sold your house" she said to him as he joined her on the couch. They had decided to put his couch in the family room and her couch in the living room. "Well, I missed you sitting on my couch as well" Andy said as he moved closer to her and pulled her in for a kiss. "Matthew is all settled in for the night?" Sharon asked him as she got more comfortable. "Yes" Andy whispered back to her as he continued to kiss her. "What's the plan for tomorrow?" Andy asked her as she settled in against him as they both stretched out on the couch. Sharon hummed. "Well, your daughter decided that she would rather spend the holiday with you so her, Dean, and the boys will be here tomorrow around 2:30" Sharon said to him as he was lazily drawing circles on her stomach with his hand. "Provenza and Patrice said they were coming over around 3" Andy said to her as Provenza had sent him a text earlier asking him how the move was going.

"What are we serving tomorrow?" Andy asked Sharon as they were still on the couch. Sharon had turned the TV on but to a low volume. She had flipped on an old movie and they were watching it. "I was going to have it catered. The grocery store down the street does those sorts of things and since we moved today, I thought that was the best option" Sharon said which surprised Andy. "That sounds good to me" he said back to her and they continued to watch the movie.

It was getting late, and the movie was done. Andy had gotten up from the couch and proceeded to check all of the doors and made sure they were all locked. He then joined Sharon who was waiting for him in the hallway before they both went upstairs to their bedroom. On the way there, Sharon peeked inside Matthew's room and found him fast asleep with Moxie lying on the bed next to him. She smiled as she closed the door and joined Andy in their room. "Matthew asked me again if he could stay with us forever" Andy said to Sharon as she came into the room. "What did you tell him?" Sharon asked. "I told him that there was a good chance that he would be" Andy said back to her as he got dressed for bed. She then went to their bathroom and got ready herself. Andy joined her in their bathroom when she was ready and changed both of her bandages. "Ugh, how much longer before those stitches dissolve?" Sharon asked Andy. "Well, sweetie, considering they stitched you up yesterday and the doctor said two weeks, I think you have a while before they start to disappear" Andy said to her as he looked at her wound. He applied the ointment on them and then covered the wounds back up. Andy hated seeing Sharon injured. She walked back in to the bedroom and pulled back the covers. They still had boxes to unpack, but they had a majority of the items unpacked. Sharon got into bed and Andy joined her a couple of minutes later. He settled in behind her and held her close to him. They both fell asleep, eager to enjoy Thanksgiving with family and friends tomorrow.

TBC


	16. Chapter 16

**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

 **A/N:** Well everybody, this is the last chapter of the story Firebug. I wanted to thank everyone for the great reviews. I really appreciate them. I will be continuing this in a new story that will pick up a couple of weeks later. Stay tuned...

Chapter 16

Sharon rolled over and ran her hand through the bed sheets, noticing that Andy was not sleeping next to her. She opened her eyes and looked for him, noticing the time on the clock in their room. 'Ugh, 2:40!' she thought to herself. She turned on the light on the night stand next to their bed. She glanced around the room looking for him but he was not there. She glanced over to the bathroom, but the light was off. She took a deep breath and then looked towards the balcony and noticed that the blinds were drawn open. She got out of bed and headed towards the balcony doors where she saw Andy leaning up against the railing.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" he asked as she wrapped her hands around his midsection. "No, I just didn't know where you were" she said to him as he turned around in her arms and gathered her closely. "It's quiet out here" he said to her. "It helps me think" he added. She understood that. "It's just that we've been through so much Sharon in the past couple of months, I just want things to go right for us for a change" Andy whispered to her.

"Things will, I have faith that everything will work out for our family and for us" Sharon had said to him as she looked up at his face. He held her longer in his arms and she rubbed her hands up and down his back. He gave her a little smile and tugged on her hand. "Come on, I've been out here long enough" he said as he led her back inside their bedroom. Sharon closed the balcony doors behind her and followed him to their bed. Andy laid down and Sharon snuggled up to him again. As soon as his head hit his pillow, he was out. Sharon heard his breathing change and knew he fell asleep. She did the same not too long after.

That morning, the sun was starting to shine through their bedroom windows and Andy stretched as he woke up. He glanced down and saw Sharon was practically sleeping on top of him. She must have moved after the second time they went to bed. He started rubbing his hands on her back, gently caressing her. "Morning" she said to him as she woke up, enjoying her little back massage. "Good morning, beautiful" he said to her as she looked back at him. "Happy Thanksgiving" he said to her and gave her a kiss. She returned the kiss with equal fervor.

There was a knock at their bedroom door. "Who is it?" Andy asked as it could only be two people. "Matthew" a little voice said from the other side of the door. "At least he knocks now, the kid is learning" Andy said to Sharon as she got off of him. "Come in Matthew" Sharon said, making sure she looked decent. "Good Morning Matthew" Sharon said as he came into their room. Matthew ran inside closer to them and Moxie followed him. "Good morning" he said to them. "Wow! You are already dressed!" Sharon said surprisingly. "How long have you been up, buddy?" Andy asked Matthew. "A half hour" he said as he thought about it. "It's Thanksgiving morning!" Matthew said as he left their room with Moxie and went into the hallway. Sharon and Andy looked at each other and Andy shrugged his shoulders as he got out of bed to see where Matthew went. Matthew and Moxie were still upstairs looking out one of the windows at the front of the house. "This window is pretty cool, you can see everything outside from up here" he said as Andy approached him. Andy yawned and agreed with the boy, "Yes you can". "Why don't you go play in your room while I get dressed and then you can come with me to the store so we can get some groceries in this house, okay?" Andy said to Matthew as he placed his hand on Matthew's shoulder. "Okay" Matthew said as he got up and ran into his room, Moxie following him.

Andy stepped back into their room and Sharon was in their closet. He stepped in next to her as she was choosing what to wear. "I told Matthew to go play in his room while I got dressed and then he is coming with me to go grocery shopping" Andy said to her as he pulled out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. "Sounds good, make sure you get what I want on the list I made in the kitchen" Sharon said to him. "Yes ma'am" he said back to her, with a wink and a smile, and then quickly changed in their bathroom. Sharon sat down in front of her mirror and looked at herself. The stitches in Sharon's neck were starting to bother her more so this morning and she wanted to itch them. Andy walked back in as Sharon was looking at her stitches. "Are they bothering you, sweetheart?" he said as he whispered into her ear walking past her to the laundry basket. "Yes, they itch so badly" Sharon said as she looked back at him to see what he was doing. He came back to her to look at both her neck and her arm. "Your arm looks real good, keep putting that ointment on them" he said as he touched her arm. "Your neck looks incredible" he said as he gently kissed the area of her stitches. "I feel all grimy" Sharon said to him. "I'll tell you what. Before they show up today, I will personally give you a Flynn special sponge bath which will make you feel wonderful" he said as he leaned down to kiss her. "I'll hold you to that promise" Sharon said as he pulled away to put on his shoes. "Remember get everything on my list!" she said to him as he walked out of their bedroom. "Yes dear" he said back as he walked over to Matthew's room. "Ready?" he said to him as Matthew was playing with his trucks. "Yes!" he said as he got up and followed Andy downstairs.

Andy let Moxie out in the yard before they left for the store and Moxie did his business, and then came back inside. Andy saw the list that Sharon had made. It was two pages long! "Are you kidding me?" he muttered to himself as he grabbed the list from the countertop. "Alright Matthew, let's go" Andy said as he held the door open for Matthew and then turned around. "You are in charge Moxie" he said to the dog and Moxie laid down on his bed in the kitchen. Andy and Matthew got in the car and Andy drove them to the grocery store to get the items on Sharon's list. When they pulled into the parking lot, there were a lot of cars already there. Andy took a deep breath and found a parking spot to pull in to. Just then, Andy's phone alerted to a text message from Sharon. 'Don't forget to pick up the catered meal, pick up is at the deli counter and it's under your name. Thank you sweetheart!' the message said. Andy put his phone away and they ventured into the grocery store on Thanksgiving morning with all of the other people out and about in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile back at the new house, Sharon was trying to sort through the unopened boxes in the living room. As she was doing that, Rusty came in the back way and was greeted by Moxie. "Hey Moxie" Rusty said to the dog as he petted him when he walked in to the kitchen. "Mom?" Rusty said as he made his way through to the front door. "In here" Sharon answered as Rusty found her sorting through some boxes. "Hi" he said to her. "Hello" she said as she unpacked another box. "What are you doing?" Rusty asked her as he took a look around the room. "I'm trying to make this place look halfway decent when company comes over later on today" Sharon said as she continued to go through the box in front of her. "Do you want some help? Gus is coming over shortly and he said he wants to help out" Rusty said to Sharon. Sharon looked up at him. "That would be perfect Rusty, thank you" she said to him.

Back at the grocery store, Andy and Matthew were getting everything on Sharon's list. Andy stopped at the deli counter to pick up the meal that Sharon had reserved for them. They had to make their way over to the dairy section after picking up the cereal and bread. Matthew picked a cereal that he wanted but Andy said it had too much sugar in it so Matthew put it back on the shelf. "How about Rice Krispies?" Andy suggested and Matthew agreed and placed the box in the cart. They made their way through the aisle and when Andy turned the corner, as he looked up, he thought he saw Croelick standing a couple of aisles down from them. As Andy got closer to the location, Croelick was not there. Andy looked around to see where he could have gone to. "This way Matthew" he said to the boy as he made his way through the aisles looking for Croelick, but he couldn't find him. Andy stopped in front of the dairy section. Maybe he was imagining seeing him there, he thought to himself. Matthew opened the door and got the milk they needed and other things on the list. Andy again looked around them but didn't see anybody. After getting everything on the list, they made their way to the checkout lines and waited to check out.

After checking out in what seemed to be the longest line ever, Andy and Matthew made their way to the car to unload the grocery bags. Matthew was helping Andy with the bags that he could lift and Andy was putting in the heavier things. After the car was loaded with groceries, Andy and Matthew brought the cart back to the cart corral and Matthew held Andy's hand as they walked back to the car. Andy got Matthew settled in the back seat and made his way to the front of the car. He looked up before getting in and saw Croelick again, in the car row in front of them. As Andy was looking at him a truck went by in front and when it passed, Croelick again was nowhere to be seen. Andy shook his head and looked again but didn't see him. He looked down in the car and saw Matthew was all set and then he got inside the car. "I must be seeing things" Andy said to himself. "What are you seeing?" Matthew asked innocently. "I thought I saw somebody I know, that's all" Andy said as he smiled back at Matthew. "Ready?" he asked Matthew. Matthew gave him a thumbs up. "Yes!" he said to Andy. They drove back to the new house.

Meanwhile at the new house, Sharon, Rusty, and Gus were unpacking some more boxes and putting things away in both the living room, family room, and dining room areas. Gus was already setting the table in the dining room after asking Sharon what she wanted the table to look like. Rusty was helping him sort through things. "So what happened to your mom?" Gus asked Rusty quietly. Rusty looked at him wondering what he was talking about. "The bandage on her neck and arm?" Gus said back to him. "Oh, she got injured at work by some crazy lady who held her hostage, Andy had to shoot the person" Rusty said nonchalantly. "Are you serious?" Gus said in disbelief. "Yes, look Sharon doesn't want it to be a big deal, okay so just act normal" Rusty explained to him. "Normal?" Gus said. "Yeah" Rusty said as he went back to helping set the table. Gus shook his head but went back to arranging the table.

Sharon was in the kitchen when Andy and Matthew came back home. She opened the door for them as they were bringing in the bags of groceries. She went out there to help as Matthew came inside. "Everything okay?" she said to Andy as she came up to the car. Andy looked at her. "Yeah, we got everything on your list" he said back to her. She could tell something was bothering him but she decided to let it go, if he wanted to tell her, he would eventually. They made several trips to the car and brought in all of the groceries. Sharon sorted through them and Andy placed the refrigerated items away. Gus and Rusty were done in the dining room and the table looked very nice. The room also looked neat and tidy. "Rusty, Gus, you guys did a nice job in here" Sharon said as she walked inside the room. "Thank you" Gus said. "Do you need any more help?" he asked Sharon as she looked around the room. "Well, all of the groceries are put away. The boxes are cleared" she said as she walked back to the hallway. "There is one favor I need" Sharon started to say to them. "What's that Mom?" Rusty asked. "If you guys wouldn't mind keeping an eye on Matthew for a while" Sharon asked them. "No problem Sharon" Gus said right away. "Okay, good. He is currently in the kitchen" Sharon said and then headed back to the kitchen where Andy and Matthew were at.

Andy was just putting away the empty grocery bags in the pantry when Sharon came up behind him and whispered in his ear. "Gus and Rusty are going to watch Matthew for a bit" she said. He turned around. "Oh, what do you have in mind Mrs. Flynn?" Andy asked her as he grinned. "Your famous sponge bath" she said back to him and then sauntered out of the kitchen to the hallway. Gus and Rusty came in to the kitchen and saw the last half of that exchange. Rusty just rolled his eyes at Andy. "Thanks guys" Andy said as he followed Sharon upstairs. Matthew was coloring on a big piece of paper. "Hi Matthew, what are you doing?" Gus asked him as he walked over to the kitchen table. "I'm coloring the first thanksgiving" Matthew said as he continued to color. "Do you want to help me?" Matthew asked Gus. "Sure, tell me what I should do" Gus said as he picked up a crayon.

Sharon made her way into the master bathroom and Andy wasn't too far behind her. She slowly undressed her clothes as Andy prepared the bath for her. As he filled up the bathtub with warm water, hot enough for Sharon to relax in but not too hot, he glanced over at Sharon who was undressing in front of him. Was she trying to kill him right there, he thought to himself. The water temperature was just right and the tub was filled. Andy shut off the water and turned his attention to Sharon. He made his way to her and slowly undid the two bandages covering up the stitches on her arm and neck. Sharon hissed a little when he did that. "Sorry" he whispered to her. He guided her to the bathtub and helped her get in. The water felt very nice to Sharon as she sat down in it. Andy stripped down to his boxers and a t-shirt and slowly took a washcloth and began to wash Sharon's body. He was careful each time he moved the washcloth up her body to not get her stitches wet on her arm or her neck. Each time he moved the washcloth up her body, he would lean in to give her a kiss on her cheek, nose, mouth, and neck. Sharon was enjoying every minute of the bath. Andy was so good to her and made her feel loved. "Are you going to join me in here?" she asked him as he moved closer to her. "Do you want me to?" Andy asked and Sharon nodded yes. Andy removed the remaining of his clothes and slid in behind her, still mindful of her stitches. He gently caressed her body as she settled in and leaned back onto him. He held her as she relaxed. He was going to tell her that he thought he saw Croelick at the grocery store but decided against it, because he didn't want to ruin the moment they were sharing and enjoying so much.

A couple of hours later, everyone was ready and dressed. The catered meal was sitting in the oven, keeping warm. Sharon was in the kitchen preparing some appetizers and Gus was helping her. Andy walked into the kitchen to grab a carrot stick from the tray Sharon was preparing. Usually she would swat his hand away but today she was just happy that he was willingly eating healthier. "Where's Matthew?" he asked. "He's in the family room watching a movie with Rusty" Sharon said as she was cutting up more vegetables. Gus was at the stove, slowly mixing the stuffing. He didn't mind the show of affection Sharon and Andy gave each other, he thought it was actually very nice that two people could love each other as much as them did. The doorbell rang and Moxie ran to the door and started barking. Andy went towards the front door and told Moxie it was okay. Moxie sat and Andy peeked outside and saw it was Nicole, Dean, and the boys. He opened the door and greeted them.

"Hi Grandpa Andy!" the boys said as they stepped inside the house. Nicole and Dean followed them in and they were awestruck by how big the house was. "Wow Dad! This house is perfect!" Nicole said to Andy as she greeted him. "Thank you" he said back to her. Dean shook Andy's hand. "Where's Matthew and everyone else?" Nicole asked her father. "Matthew is in the family room with Rusty watching a movie. Sharon is in the kitchen along with Gus" Andy said as he pointed to the different rooms. "Can we go watch the movie Mom?" the boys asked Nicole. "Sure, but don't run!" Nicole said to them as they headed to the family room. "Come on, I'll show you the kitchen" Andy said to Nicole and Dean as they followed him down the hall.

"Hi Nicole, Dean" Sharon greeted them as they came in to the kitchen. "Hi Sharon" Nicole said as she hugged her. Nicole noticed the bandage on Sharon's neck. "What happened?" Nicole asked Sharon. "Well, it's a long story" Sharon said to Nicole and they both sat down at the kitchen table. Andy asked Dean if he wanted anything to drink. "Oh, I'm fine right now" Dean said to him. "Come on, I'll show you the rest of the house" Andy said to Dean and they walked away. "Everything is looking good, Sharon. I'm going to check on Rusty and the boys" Gus said to Sharon as he made his way out to the family room.

"So, what happened because my Dad didn't mention anything about you getting injured" Nicole said to Sharon. "Oh, that's because I didn't want to worry everyone" Sharon said to her. "There was this lady…" Sharon started to say to Nicole. Meanwhile, Andy was showing Dean the backyard of the house and they were walking towards the swimming pool. "Oh, I'm sure the boys would just love this in the summertime Andy" Dean said to him. "Yeah, I'm sure they would" Andy said back to him. They made their way over to the porch. "So, you have a gas hookup outside? That's really nice" Dean said to Andy. "Yes, I just need to convince Sharon to let me buy the gas grill that I saw at the Home Depot" Andy said to him. "Oh, I'm sure she would let you" Dean said to Andy as they walked back in the house towards the kitchen. "And then your father shot her and saved me. I had to have stitches on my neck and my arm, but I'm fine" Sharon stated to Nicole. Nicole looked back at Sharon and she was glad that everything had gone well with that situation. She knew if something had happened to Sharon, she wasn't sure what her father would do. "Well, thank you for sharing that with me, Sharon. Both of you are very brave, I guess I never truly realized that before" Nicole said to Sharon as she smiled and touched her hand.

The doorbell rang again and this time it was Provenza and Patrice. Andy opened the door and they entered the house, admiring the big entranceway. "Hello Patrice" Andy said to her as he kissed her cheek. "Hello Andy" Patrice said back to him. "Sharon's in the kitchen along with Nicole. It's right down the hallway" Andy said to Patrice as she followed his instructions. "Provenza" Andy said as he shook his partner's hand. "Nice place you guys have here" Provenza said back to him. "Where's everyone else at?" Provenza asked Andy as he stood by the stairs. "I guess everyone else is in the Family Room watching some sort of movie" Andy said to him as they made their way towards the kitchen as well.

Patrice joined the other ladies at the kitchen table. "You have such a nice home here, Sharon" Patrice said to her. "Oh, thank you" Sharon said back to her. "I can't believe we moved everything yesterday from the condo and Andy's storage to here" Sharon added. "Well, everything looks great Sharon, as always" Nicole stated to Sharon. "So, did anything happen at work yesterday?" Andy asked Provenza as they walked into the kitchen. "No, boring as ever" Provenza stated and then headed to the island where the appetizers were laid out. He was looking for the dish that Patrice made and found it, grabbed a plate and helped himself to some food. Sharon stood up and walked over to where Andy was by the island. "We are going to serve dinner in about an hour or so" she said to him as she checked on all of the food. Andy smiled at her and gave her a small kiss. "Come on Provenza, let's go out back, I'll show you the amazing porch we have" Andy said to his best friend as he was grabbing some more food for his plate and then followed Andy outside.

"I'm sure our guys didn't want to hear us talking girl talk, that's why you shoed them out, didn't you Sharon?" Patrice said to her. Sharon just smiled back at Patrice and Nicole. "Um, maybe" Sharon said. The three of them continued to talk around the kitchen table. Meanwhile out on the porch in the backyard, Andy and Provenza were sitting and reminiscing about the good ole days. "Remember when we had to fly to Atlanta and pick up that guy who robbed a bank" Provenza started. "Yeah, and then we had to drive cross country with the Chief, Fritz, her parents, and the guy because he didn't want to fly back and made an incident when we brought him to the airport" Andy finished, shaking his head. Provenza was laughing at the memory. "The look on your face when we started driving in the big RV was priceless" he said to Andy, still laughing. "Yeah, well as I remember correctly, you weren't too thrilled either with those accommodations" Andy said to Provenza. Provenza looked back at his best friend and turned serious for a second. "In all seriousness, I'm glad that this Thanksgiving is a lot better than last year's. For one, you're okay. And she's not sitting in the waiting room of a hospital worried that you weren't coming back" Provenza told Andy as they sat there thinking about a lot of things. "Thanks" Andy said as he held out his hand and shook Provenza's hand.

Dinner was ready about an hour later and everyone was seated at the table in the dining room. "Wow! Sharon this all looks so good" Nicole said as she helped place the food dishes on the table. Andy was carving the turkey breast in the kitchen and then brought it out to the table. Gus also helped bring the food out and then sat next to Rusty. Andy sat at the head of the table next to Sharon on his right and Provenza on his left. Patrice sat next to Provenza and then Nicole was next to her. Dean and the boys followed around the table and then Matthew sat next to Sharon with Rusty and Gus next to him. Before they started serving the meal, Sharon stood up and clink her water glass to get everyone's attention. "Before we start, I just want to say a few words" she said and then cleared her throat. "Last year on Thanksgiving, we were in the hospital waiting for Andy's surgery to finish, not knowing what that was going to bring. With our faith and our beliefs, Andy's surgery was successful and minus a couple of more health scares, we are all doing fine and are healthy today. It's a lot to be thankful for and I am truly thankful every day that you are here with me, Andy" Sharon said to him and everyone at the table raised their glasses. Sharon leaned in to Andy and kissed him on his lips. "I love you" they whispered to each other. "We are also thankful that Matthew is here with us and is part of our ever growing family" Sharon said to Matthew and everyone raised their glasses with that too. They then said grace and everyone started passing around the food to eat.

After dinner, they all sat around outside in the backyard while the kids played with Moxie there. Andy had set up the fire pit and as the night grew late, the fire pit was started and everyone gathered around it telling stories. Sharon was sitting next to Andy and she leaned in to his side. He placed his arm around her. They watched everyone at their new house laughing and talking about anything. Moxie was being chased by Andy's step-grandsons all over the yard. Moxie stopped running and laid down by Andy and then the kids settled down and found their parents who were sitting across from Andy and Sharon. Matthew was sitting in a chair next to Sharon and he fell asleep. Sharon looked over at him and smiled. She nudged Andy's side and Andy glanced over at the kid. "He's had a big day" he said to her and smiled. Provenza stood up from his seat. "It's getting late, and we better get going" he said to everyone as he helped Patrice up from her seat. "Thank you so much for having us over, everything was delicious and wonderful" Patrice said to Sharon as they walked back inside the house. Nicole, Dean, and the boys followed them into the house and they said their goodbyes to Sharon and Andy. Gus brought Matthew inside the house as everyone left. "Where should I place him?" he asked Sharon and Andy who were standing at the front door. "Can you take him upstairs in his room?" Sharon asked Gus and Gus nodded and did that. Sharon followed him upstairs. Rusty was outside bringing some things in the house and Andy went back out there to put water on the fire pit.

After everything was brought in and turned off, Andy and Moxie headed upstairs to see where Sharon was. Rusty and Gus made their way to Rusty's place above the garage. The dog went running up the stairs and into Matthew's bedroom. Sharon was in there tucking the boy in. "Good night" she said to Matthew as he was already sleeping. Moxie settled on the bed and went to sleep too. Sharon walked out of his room and was greeted by Andy who was waiting for her in the hallway. He pulled her in and held her while rubbing her back. "Thank you for a great day and evening" he said to her. She looked up at him. "You're very welcome" she said back to him and gave him a kiss. They went into their bedroom and got ready for bed. After they had changed their clothes, Sharon and Andy settled into bed with Sharon laying her head on Andy's shoulder and Andy holding her close to him.

"I need to tell you something" Andy said as they laid there. "What is it?" Sharon asked him. "Well, you know when we came back from the grocery store, something was bothering me" Andy said. "Yeah, I could tell" Sharon said as she shifted up to look at him. "When Matthew and I were in the grocery store, I thought I saw Croelick there too" Andy said to her as he looked into her eyes. Sharon gave a look of panic. "But, I couldn't find him in the store" he said to her. She looked back at him. "I also saw him outside in the parking lot looking straight at me, but then a truck went by and when it moved, he was gone" Andy continued. Sharon shook her head. "I don't want to worry about him anymore" Sharon said back to Andy and settled into his embrace again. "I love you" she whispered to him. "I love you too" Andy whispered back to her. They both fell asleep, looking forward to whatever might lie ahead for them.

The end


End file.
